ECP, Punjab, Sindh seek to stagger polls

ISLAMABAD: After the bitter experience of holding local polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on one day, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Punjab and Sindh governments have decided to jointly approach the Supreme Court with the request to review its earlier order that directed the local elections in these two provinces on the same day.
“We will plead that the polls should be allowed in phases so that we can organise the exercise in a better and efficient way,” an ECP official told The News.
In a meeting of the ECP secretary with the local government secretaries and provincial election commissioner of Punjab and Sindh, it has been decided that all of them will seek permission from the apex court to stagger the local elections to avoid mal-administration.
The official said the ECP wants to evade the repeat of mismanagement, chaos and anarchy that permeated the local polls in KP when the police failed to provide any security resulting in several killings. The one-day polling created many problems and difficulties, he believed.
Even physically given the logistics, he said, it was not possible to hold one-day polling in Punjab and Sindh. He pointed out that some 430 million ballot papers would be required for the two provinces.
The ECP would have a maximum of 25 days in view of the polls schedule to produce these voting papers but the printing presses did not have the capacity to print such a huge quantity within this period, he said. All the presses have the optimal capacity of producing 10 million ballot papers daily by working 24 hours. This is besides the much elaborate security arrangements that would have to be made to conduct the exercise.
After lengthy hearings in which the Supreme Court had pushed the governments of KP, Punjab and Sindh hard to hold the local elections and stop violation of the Constitution by delaying the exercise, it had directed to organise the polls on September 20 in Punjab and Sindh and in July in the Islamabad Capital Territory. At the time, the ECP and the federal and provincial governments had agreed to such dates.
However, the opinion of the ECP and Punjab and Sindh government changed after the May 30 polls in KP. It has transpired to the ECP that it will not be able to conduct the elections on the same day in Punjab and Sindh and the exercise will have to be staggered in two or more phases.
Sharing the contents of 365 complaints received from the district returning officers (DROs) of KP about the local polls, the ECP official said that all of them talked about lack or total absence of police protection to the polling stations and voters to exercise their right.
He said that in many cases, the ballot papers were taken away, ballot boxes smashed, ballots destroyed etc., without any let or hindrance. A couple of policemen posted at a polling station turned out to be just silent spectators. The cops were unable to control the situation.
The official said that it always happened that the criminals destroyed everything till the arrival of the army troops, summoned to curb illegalities. The moment the military personnel left, the situation worsened.
He said that since the DROs served just as post office, the ECP has called the returning officers (ROs) to ascertain facts about the mismanagement.Scared of the consequences of mishandling and chaos that ensued in KP, the ECP did not want to take risk in the much bigger electoral exercise in Punjab and Sindh. However, its job is facilitated when the two provincial governments share its stand.