"A majority of the rallies staged by the country’s political outfits in the run-up to the May 2013 elections have violated the code of conduct laid down by the poll supervisory body," the report reads.
Many candidates, political parties, and election observers complained that the code of conduct was not strictly enforced, exposing the administrative weakness of the ECP.
In the code, the ECP directed the polling staff not to follow the orders of anyone except the presiding officers; while for the candidates, the expense limit on each candidate’s election campaign was set at Rs 1.5 million, along with providing standard dimensions of the campaigning posters and billboards.
An official in the ECP says the prime responsibility of implementation of the code of conduct is on the commission itself. "Some further amendments have been proposed in the election for strict implementation of the code," he discloses, adding, "the bill was approved by the standing committee of the National Assembly in the previous regime but could not be enacted." He hopes that with the upcoming parliamentary committee on election reforms, this law would be tabled in the house, too. The draft suggests high fines on the violation of the code of conduct.
For General Elections 2013, the ECP have prepared and implemented five codes of conduct, which cover political parties and contesting candidates, observers, media, polling personnel, and security personnel.
The codes were prepared in consultation with political parties, media, and civil society organisations. The code of conduct for political parties and candidates was printed in newspapers prior to its approval by the Commission in order to seek comments and suggestions from the political parties and the general public.
Also, in the second "Five-Year Strategic Plan 2014-2018" of the ECP, one of the critical amendments being proposed is the protection of codes of conduct for political parties and contesting candidates, election observers and media under the election law.
"The codes shall be revised annually in consultation with the country’s political parties or the joint parliamentary committee…. It is necessary to establish in the election law that codes of conduct for selected stakeholder groups will become part of the election regulations overseen by the ECP while providing the commission with the authority to issue warnings and impose fines or binding orders," the plan envisages.
Among others, the amendment suggested to improve code of conduct implementation includes making the violation of code of conduct a punishable offence.
The ECP has proposed to insert a new section 86B (Violation of the Code of Conduct) to the Act. According to this amendment, "any person who violates any provision of the code of conduct shall be punishable with fine which may extend to one hundred thousand rupees." This is a substantive amendment which makes violation of the code punishable.
"Without any penalty for violation of the code its enforcement seems challenging," Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, executive director of PILDAT. "The current status of the ECP code of conduct seems vague. The code, actually, should be made part of the electoral laws with clear penal provisions."
In April 2013, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) finance minister Senator Ishaq Dar, had demanded a presidential ordinance for holding free and fair elections and effective implementation of the code of conduct.
Dar had suggested giving "legal cover" to the code as "inevitable". He had cited the Senate’s legal committee at that time recommending that offences be declared non-bailable and punishable by up to seven years imprisonment.
Would the ruling PML-N now support such reforms remains a question.