Electoral reforms to be finalised by next week

ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms has examined 73 election proposals, which were presented before it. It has decided to finalise the recommendations by next week and get approval of the amendments to the Election Act from both houses of parliament before the end of tenure of the National Assembly.

An in-camera meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms was held with its Chairman and Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in the chair. Committee members including Law Minister Azam Tarar, Dr Fehmida Mirza, Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar, Senator Taj Haider, MNA Afzal Dhandla, Senator Manzoor Ahmed, Senator Kamran Murtaza and the Election Commission of Pakistan secretary attended the meeting.

Talking to the media after the meeting, Ayaz Sadiq ruled out the possibility of banning any political party, saying that there was no proposal to ban any party as the committee’s job was to make electoral reforms.

“We will review the contentious issues on Thursday besides drafting the agreed upon proposals. The controversial issues which need further discussion will be examined on Monday,” he said.

Ayaz Sadiq said there was a thorough discussion on proposals on electoral reforms, and effective proposals were taken into consideration for transparent conduct of elections. He said many things were done during former chief justice Saqib Nisar’s tenure, and the committee was trying to fix controversial decisions related to elections.

According to sources, it was proposed in the committee meeting that specific time limit should be given to the presiding officer to compile results and they should be called to account if the process was delayed. It was proposed in the meeting that the presiding officer should be bound to give a sound reason for delay in compiling election results.

It was proposed in the meeting that the presiding officer would send a photocopy of the signed result to the returning officer and also proposed to provide the presiding officer with high-speed internet and smartphone. It was proposed in the meeting to allow polling agents to carry camera phones.

It was also proposed to install CCTV cameras at each polling station booth as it will assist in poll review, counting and compilation of results and in case of complaints, recording of cameras can be presented as evidence. It was proposed that the candidate will also be able to get the video of any polling station by paying a fee. It was also proposed to increase the election expenses limit for national and provincial assemblies’ candidates. It was suggested that Rs4 million to Rs10 million could be spent for National Assembly seat electioneering, and Rs2 million to Rs4 million on provincial assembly seat electioneering.

It was proposed in the meeting that action should be taken against the presiding and reviewing officer under the criminal law over negligence. Award of 6-month to 3-year jail term to the election staff over involvement in rigging the election was also discussed in the meeting. A proposal also came up in the meeting to decide violation of the code of conduct in seven days instead of 15 days.

It was proposed that the final list of polling staff should be uploaded on the ECP website and the candidate would be able to challenge the appointment of polling staff to the constituency within 10 days. It was also proposed to display the complete voters list outside each polling station.

It was also proposed that the security personnel would be on duty outside the polling station but, in case of emergency, they could enter the polling station with the permission of presiding officer.