AT long last, two years and two months on from May 2013, the country can put to rest doubts about the credibility and acceptability of the last general election.

The three-member General Elections-2013 Inquiry Commission 2015 led by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Nasirul Mulk has given its verdict: the elections were in large part organised and conducted fairly and lawfully; no plan or design to manipulate or influence the election was found; and – simplifying the use of a double negative by the Commission — the elections were a true and fair reflection of the mandate given by the electorate.

In sum, the PTI’s claims have been dismissed and the PML-N government declared legitimate and lawfully elected.

In this hour of victory for the PML-N — and relief for the electorate that its will was not materially distorted in May 2013 — there was a predictable, though thoroughly unnecessary, controversy: instead of immediately releasing the report to the public, the PML-N chose to overnight crow about its content and first spin the conclusions of the report rather than allow the media and the people to read it for themselves.

Fortunately, better sense prevailed and the whole report was released yesterday afternoon before a full-fledged controversy erupted.

Know more: JC finds 2013 elections 'fair and in accordance with law'

While vindication for the PML-N is here and the PTI is left to reflect on how and why it dragged the country through the dangerous and destabilising times that was the months-long dharna in Islamabad, the Commission’s report does underscore that there is a great deal of work to be done before Pakistan can traverse the ground between credible and acceptable and free and fair. In particular, the report amounts to an indictment of the Election Commission of Pakistan and its ability to conduct and organise elections.

The ECP, while constitutionally empowered, has proved to be very feeble in practice. It is unable to train and monitor the massive election machine that reports to it. It has not provided the kind of dynamism and sense of purpose that the vast administrative exercise that is a general elections needs.

As rightly suggested by the Commission, it was the many failures of the ECP that combined to produce a sense of injustice and even conspiracy theories in the minds of many of the electoral losers in May 2013.

There is surely no reason why the ECP should continue to be so listless in the performance of its constitutional duties.

Yet, much will depend on the government — and parliament — if the ECP is to be re-energised and re-tooled to meet the needs of elections in the 21st century.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif struck a conciliatory note in his address to the nation yesterday and referred to the work of the parliamentary committee of electoral reforms.

But the proposed reforms have largely and long been finalised. All that’s required is the political will to turn recommendations into law.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2015

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