Election observers welcomed

LAHORE
Welcoming the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan to allow Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) to monitor local bodices’ elections on election day, Punjab PPP president Mian Manzoor Wattoo said the massive pre-poll issue still remains unresolved for which the ruling party has chalked out a plan to steal the mandate with the connivance of Punjab bureaucracy appointed as district returning officers and assistant returning officers.
He reiterated his demand which is the demand of all opposition parties that judicial officers should be appointed as district returning officers and assistant returning officers consisting session judges, additional sessions judges for ensuring free, fair and transparent local bodies’ elections.
The appointment of deputy commissioners and Punjab government officers as district Returning officers and assistant returning offices will surely spoil the elections because they will spare no effort in proving themselves as more loyal than the king caring less to the imperative of fair and free elections. He added that without accepting the demand regarding the deployment of judicial officers the whole electoral process would be a futile exercise because it would not fulfill the purpose of the constitution due to the greater possibility of stolen mandate as per arrangements enforced now. He asked the Chief Election Commissioner and the Secretary Election Commission to take the notice of this demand of the opposition parties and take immediate action to right the wrong because the credibility of the elections was at stake. The possibility of becoming the election controversial is greater as the members of the ECP have already become controversial due to their alleged partisan role in 2013 elections, he argued.