Foreign observation mission Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) has clarified that the time taken to write and release its reports “varies considerably” with each group and that the report on Pakistan’s 2024 general elections was finalised by the end of that year.

The COG report, released to the public on September 30, had been the subject of some controversy after media reports suggested the Commonwealth had buried the report after finding the polls to be riddled with problems. According to the letter of transmittal appended to the report, it was submitted by the COG to the Commonwealth secretary general on Nov 20, 2024.

“The length of time taken to write COG reports, and similarly, the finalisation and release of the publication, varies considerably with each COG. Other factors affecting the release dates include legal challenges and disputes. In this case, a comprehensive report of over 160 pages was finalised by the end of 2024,” the Commonwealth said in a statement on Tuesday.

It added that its secretariat first shared the report earlier this year with Pakistani government and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), encouraging a “domestic mechanism which convenes all electoral stakeholders to address the recommendations in the COG report”.

“Subsequently, the secretariat sought information on the status of action taken. This process was necessary for any further steps with regard to the internal process for releasing the report,” the statement added.

“It was then decided that the Pakistan COG report, along with two other outstanding reports of elections in 2024, would be released at the end of September. This timeline was made available to the media, when contacted, and the report was duly published on September 30 along with other reports,” the Commonwealth said.

On the same day the COG released its Pakistan report, it also made public the reports for Mozambique and Botswana — almost 11 months after both of them were held in October 2024.

“The Commonwealth Secretariat is guided by, and is deeply committed to, the values of the Commonwealth Charter, which are shared by all our member countries,” the statement stressed.

The body cited the 2018 Revised Commonwealth Guidelines for the Conduct of Election Observation in Member Countries, as per which the reports are “shared with the member government, Election Management Bodies (EMBs) and with other stakeholders” first and “thereafter, the report is made public”.

“We strongly encourage all stakeholders to use the report constructively, in service of the people of Pakistan. As we have stated in earlier statements, we remain ready to support any mechanism aimed at strengthening democracy in Pakistan, for the benefit of all its citizens,” the Commonwealth said.

“We will continue to partner with stakeholders to ensure that COG reports are released in a timely manner,” it added, affirming its commitment to transparency while adhering to the sequence of release as outlined in the 2018 Revised Guidelines.

The statement comes after 130 activists, lawyers and journalists wrote a letter to the Commonwealth Secretariat on October 2, expressing concern over the “extraordinary” delay in the report’s publication and noting that election reports were usually published routinely without any delay.

In its report, the COG had noted the denial of an election symbol to the PTI, the consecutive convictions of the party’s founder Imran Khan and limitations on the freedom of assembly, adding that such conditions “consistently limited one party’s ability to contest the election on a level playing field”.

It also mentioned the Forms-45 controversy, saying it reviewed documentation suggesting that Form-45s may have been altered to change the total number of votes received by candidates.

Commenting on the Commonwealth’s latest statement, PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja said: “The Commonwealth Guidelines clearly state that election reports must be issued in a ‘timely manner, initially to key national stakeholders and then made public’ and specifically identify all ‘political parties taking part in the elections’ as key stakeholders.

“This was not done,” he said.

At the time of the 2024 elections, a team of inter­national observers from the Commonwealth had expressed their satisfaction at the poll­ing exercise and pla­yed down suspension of mobile cellular services in the country.

COG Chairperson Dr Goodluck Jonathan, who was chairing the observer mission, shared the group’s preliminary findings days later and noted the impact of legal decisions on some candidates’ ability to run for office in the days leading up to election day.

“We call on all those with grievances to address disputes through prescribed election dispute resolution mechanisms,“ he said.