ECP announces dos and don’ts for local government elections

Karachi
The Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday issued a 29-point code of conduct for all parties participating in the upcoming local bodies elections in Sindh.
According to an ECP notification:
(1) The political parties cannot propagate any opinion or act in any manner prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan, or its sovereignty, integrity, security, integrity or morality. The parties will also not do anything to defame or ridicule the judiciary or the armed forces of Pakistan, as provide under Article 63 of the constitution.
The cost of election campaign of any party cannot in union council, union committee, town committee and municipal committee cross Rs50,000 while it can be up to Rs100,000 for district councils.
The code of conduct clearly states that government servants cannot in any way assist any party or candidate in the elections and the minister cannot coincide their visits with electioneering activities.
The parties will supply identity cards to their polling agents and cannot in any way change or alter the appearance of ballot papers or symbols.
The code of conduct provides freedom to independent and international observers to monitor the local government elections with due permission from the ECP.
In matters of canvassing for votes, the parties cannot persuade anyone not to vote. Moreover, an election candidate is prohibited to be within a 200-metre radius of the polling station.
Parties cannot set up camps, or put up banners or posters without the permission of the returning officer within a radius of 100 metres of a polling station.
Parties or candidates during their election campaigns should not incite violence or terror nor should they indirectly prompt supporters to do it.
(2) Criticism of other political parties shall be confined to their policies and past work and candidates shall refrain from criticism of private life of opponents.
(3) Contesting parties and candidates may announce their overall development programmes, but they can’t commit to anything in their constituencies until elected.
(4) All parties and candidates shall avoid corrupt practices and offences under the election laws.
(5) Organising demonstrations picketing before an individual’s house to protest against his political opinion shall be prohibited.
(6) No party or candidate shall permit followers to make use of any individual’s land, building and compound wall without permission to erect flags, banners, slogans.
(7) Candidates shall ensure their supporters don’t disturb meetings and processions organised by other parties.
(8) Parties and candidates shall restrain their workers from exerting pressure on media.
(9) Political parties and contesting candidates shall refrain from commenting on international issues which might be detrimental to the government’s relations with other countries or prejudice foreign relations.
(10) Parties, candidates and workers will refrain from deliberate dissemination of false and malicious information.
(11) The political parties shall refrain from speeches calculated to arouse parochial and sectarian feelings and controversy of conflicts between genders, sects, communities and linguistic groups.
(12) No party or candidate can appeal to violence or resort to violence during meetings, processions or during polling hours shall be strictly avoided.
(13) No person shall in any manner cause injury to any person or damage to any property.
(14) Carriage and display of all kinds of lethal weapons and firearms shall not be allowed in public meetings and processions.
(15) Parties and their polling agents shall not offer gifts or induce anyone to stand or withdraw or contest.
(16) The political parties, contesting candidates and their workers shall not propagate against the participation of any person in the elections on the basis of gender, ethnicity, religion or caste.
Political Parties’ officials, candidates or others shall not encourage or enter into agreements debarring women from becoming candidates or exercising their right of vote in an election.
(17) Ministers shall not combine their official visits with election campaigns
(18) The political parties and contesting candidates shall not procure the support or assistance of any civil servant to promote or hinder the election of a candidate.
(19) The political parties and their candidates shall dissuade their workers or sympathisers from destroying any ballot paper or any official mark on the ballot paper.
(20) No person or a political party or a candidate shall hoist or fix party flags to any public property or at any public place, except with the permission in writing from, and on the payment of such fee or charges as may be chargeable by the concerned local government or authorities. Wall chalking as part of an election campaign shall be prohibited in all forms.
(21) No election camp shall be set up on any road or place meant for the use of the public. Election camps shall be simple. No food or drink shall be served to the voters in the election camp.
(22) No contesting candidate or a political party shall cross the limit of election expenses – union council, union committee, town committee and municipal committee 50,000 whereas district council and metropolitan candidates should only one hundred thousand.
(23) No person or political party shall affix posters, hoardings, banners or leaflets/handbills larger than the sizes prescribed by the election commission.
The commission has prescribed the sizes as under:
(a) Posters 2-feet x 3-feet
(b) Hoardings 3-feet x 5-feet
(c) Banners 3-feet x 9-feet
(d) Leaflets/Handbills 9-inches x 6 inches
The local authority and the returning officer shall be responsible for the effective implementation of the provisions of this section.
(24) Parties and politicians shall refrain from making references to secret and confidential matters, which were within their official knowledge when they were in power. Nor shall they betray the confidence which they enjoyed by virtue of their official position.
(25) No advertisement, notice or announcement paid for from public funds shall carry the explicit or implicit reference, name, designation or photo of any public functionary or holder of a state or public office to project him/her as the originator, sponsor, promoter or organizer of any scheme, project, progress, ideology or vision.
(26) Issue of advertisement at the cost of public exchequer in newspapers and other media and the misuse of the official mass media during the election period for partisan coverage of political news and publicity regarding achievements with a view to furthering the prospects of the party in power shall be scrupulously avoided.
(27) The party or candidates shall inform the local administration of the venue and time of any proposed meeting well in time so as to enable the police to make necessary arrangements for controlling traffic and maintaining law and order; a party or candidate shall ascertain in advance if there are any restrictive or prohibitory orders in force in the place proposed for the meeting. If such orders exist, they shall be followed strictly. If any exception is required from such orders it shall be applied for and permission obtained well in time; organisers of a meeting shall invariably seek the assistance of the police on duty for dealing with persons disturbing a meeting or otherwise attempting to create a disorder.
Organisers themselves shall not take action against such persons; and the political parties and their candidates shall not hold public meetings or rallies on main streets, roads and chowks to avoid traffic jams and public inconvenience.
(28) Processions shall not be taken out by one party along places at which meetings are being held by another party. Posters affixed by one party shall neither be removed nor distribution of handbills and leaflets; prevented by workers of another party; a party or candidate organizing a procession shall decide before hand the time and place of the starting of the procession, the route to be followed and the time and place at which the procession will terminate. There shall ordinarily be no deviation from the programme. The organisers shall give advance intimation of at least three days to the local police authorities of the programmes so as to enable them to make necessary arrangements; the organisers shall ascertain if any restrictive orders are in force in the localities through which the procession has to pass, and shall comply with the restrictions unless exempted specially by competent authority. Any traffic regulations or restrictions shall also be carefully adhered to; the organisers shall take steps in advance to arrange for passage of the procession so that there is no block or hindrance to traffic. If the procession is very long, it shall be organised in segments of suitable lengths, so that at convenient intervals, especially at points where the procession has to pass road junctions, the passage of held up traffic could be allowed by stages thus avoiding heavy traffic congestion; if two or more political parties or candidates propose to take processions over the same route or parts thereof at about the same time, the organisers shall establish contact well in advance and decide upon the measures to be taken to ensure that the processions do not clash or cause hindrance to traffic. The assistance of the local administration shall be availed of for arriving at a satisfactory arrangement. For this purpose, the parties shall contact the local administration at the earliest opportunity but not later than three days before the date of the procession; the political parties or candidates shall exercise control to the maximum extent possible in the matter of processionists carrying articles, which may be put to misuse by undesirable elements, especially in moments of excitement.
(29) All political parties and candidates shall: (i) cooperate with the officers on election duty to ensure peaceful and orderly polling and complete freedom to the voters to exercise their franchise without being subjected to any annoyance or obstructions; (ii) supply to their authorised polling agents badges or identity cards; (iii) political parties shall carry out a comprehensive plan for education of voters in the manner of marking the ballot paper and casting votes; (iv) excepting the voters, candidates or duly authorised election agents, no one without a valid pass from the election commission or provincial election commissioner concerned or district returning officers shall enter the polling booths. However, foreign/domestic observers and
representatives of recognised bodies will be provided free access to witness the election process on production of the identification cards/passes issued to them by the aforesaid election commission authorities; (v) the code of conduct especially bars the prime minister, Senate chairman, Senate deputy chairman, speaker of any assembly, federal ministers, state ministers, governors, chief ministers, provincial ministers, advisers and special assistant of prime minister and chief minister, members of the Senate, national and provincial assembly and other state members from canvassing campaigns.