Army was deployed to ensure voters’ safety, security: ECP

ISLAMABAD: While reacting to the European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) final report, the ECP spokesperson said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) never told the mission that armed forces were deployed inside the polling station on the request of political parties.

Talking to The News, the ECP spokesperson said the EU observer mission was told that the political parties had demanded for the deployment of army inside the polling station during by-elections of 2013-18 assemblies’ tenure. “The deployment of army inside the polling station for the general elections 2018 was solely ECP’s decision and no political party made any such demand for the general elections. The ECP had to ensure safety and security of voters inside and outside of the polling stations,” the spokesperson said.

He said the EU observer had held a meeting before the general elections and they specifically asked about the deployment of army inside the polling station. The observers were told that deployment of army was not a new phenomenon as this practice was repeatedly exercised in several by-elections before the 2018’s general elections. The army’s deployment inside the polling station during those by-elections was done on the request of political parties, he said.

Talking about late issuance of visas to EU observers the spokesperson said the ECP has nothing to do with the issuance of visas to these observers. The government of Pakistan was responsible of issuing visas to them and he doesn’t know why they were not issued visas timely. The delay in visas was because of government of Pakistan and not because of ECP.

“The EU observers were issued accreditation card till July 15— ten days before the general elections. However in some cases the issuance of cards was delayed due to late arrival of few observers,” he said.

Talking about issue of recounting, he said the ECP received almost 00 application of recounting. However, the commission ordered for the recount of almost 35 constituencies. The remaining constituencies recounting orders were not issued because their results were already consolidated.

To a question, why the EU observers were denied of meeting with ECP officials and members of judiciary, the spokesperson said the observers met with the ECP official quite frequently. However, if they wanted to meet the officials on daily basis it wasn’t possible. “As far as I remember the EU mission held meeting with the ECP official for almost half a dozen time. The members of judiciary might be busy due to their tough schedule which is why they could not meet the observers,” he said.

“The ECP is examining the EU mission’s report and will issue its response after thorough examination of this report. The EU mission will meet the ECP officials today (Tuesday) after which the Commission will issue its official response,” said the spokesperson.

The EUEOM released its final report on Pakistan’s general elections 2018 in which the mission raised some serious questions about the transparency of elections particularly on the counting process.