Open ballots, show of hands: Ministers’ lack of understanding spawning confusion

ISLAMABAD: The names of members of the electoral college for the Senate will be printed on the ballot papers if the Supreme Court allows an open vote in place of a secret ballot in the upcoming elections to half of the upper house of parliament.

However, a poll via a show of hands is not what Attorney General Khalid Jawed has recommended to the government. It is an open ballot, not a show of hands vote, on which he is going to invoke the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court for its opinion.

Since the discussion on the issue was kick-started, a lot of confusion has been created by a set of federal ministers who have mixed up two very different forms of voting – an open ballot and a show of hands. Despite the attorney general clarifying what he had proposed, the misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the proposal is being widely discussed and argued about.

“The proportional representation [PR] system, which will be adopted in this election, will become more complicated if the show of hands mode is adopted,” the former, and longest serving, Senate Chairman Barrister Wasim Sajjad explained to The News.

He said that the preferences that are given in the PR system by the voters will have to be noted by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which will require a very long time and would delay the conclusion of the electoral exercise. There will also be room for errors under this system.

Wasim Sajjad elaborated that under the PR system, every parliamentary party wins Senate seats according to its strength in the electoral college and no vote is wasted. The basic idea behind this mode is to win seats in proportion to the numerical strength of a party. A kind of quota of Senate seat stands fixed for every parliamentary party under the PR system.

Sajjad is of the opinion that a constitutional amendment is required to change the mode of the Senate election from secret ballot to open vote. Only the prime minister and chief ministers can be elected through a show of hands under Article 226, which states that all elections under the Constitution, other than those of the prime minister and the chief minister, shall be by secret ballot.

Since the Senate’s revival in 1985, its members have always been elected by secret ballot. This method has at times led to big upsets in the expected results -- much to the shock of parliamentary parties -- due to the use of huge amounts of money by rich candidates, mostly independents. For example, the 2018 Senate poll caused immense embarrassment to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly when it failed to win its due number of seats. It was after that fiasco that the PTI started arguing for on open ballot with more force and vigour.

Before every Senate election, the parliamentary parties always form blocs of their provincial lawmakers allotting to them candidates they would give first, second, third or fourth preference on their ballot papers. Thus, they manage to get seats in proportion to their strength.

The single transferable vote (STV) system is designed to achieve, or closely approximate, proportional representation. Each voter casts a single ballot on which aspirants are ranked. The preferential or ranked balloting allows a transfer of votes to produce proportionality, to form consensus behind select contestants and to avoid the waste of votes.

Under the STV system, each voter casts a single vote to elect multiple winners. He/she marks the ballot for the preferred candidate and also the back-up preferences.

A vote goes to the voter's first preference if possible, but if the first preference is eliminated, instead of being thrown away, the vote is transferred to a back-up preference, with the vote being assigned to the voter's second, third, or lower choice if possible or being apportioned fractionally to different contestants. Where there are more candidates than seats, the least popular is eliminated and their votes transferred based on voters' marked back-up preferences. Surplus votes not needed by successful candidates are transferred proportionally.

Interestingly, back in May 2016, several MPs recommended in the report of the Senate Committee of the Whole an open ballot for polls to the upper house of parliament. It was stated that the secret ballot could be abused and lead to corruption, a menace that can be curbed by making an appropriate amendment in Article 226 of the Constitution to provide for an open vote. In this way, the provinces would be represented in true letter and spirit.

It was recommended that the names of the voters (members of the provincial assemblies) should be published on the ballot papers. It was noted that the PR system was adopted to achieve equal representation by all provinces in the Senate, to make it a true symbol of the federation and to help and recognise small political parties in the provinces based on ethnic and national identity which could find a place in the Upper House and not be left out. Direct election to the Senate was opposed, arguing that it would be very expensive.