Pakistan opposition’s views sought on election reforms
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry has urged the opposition to submit their suggestions for electoral reforms to hold next general elections through electronic voting machines (EVMS) and granting the right of vote to 9 million overseas Pakistanis.
Hetoldreportersthattheprimeminister’sadviser on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan briefed the cabinet about the electoral reforms and EVMS.
The government, Chaudhry said, wants to move forward on the electoral reforms with political consensus and the prime minister had writen a leter to the National Assembly speaker to engage the opposition on the mater.
The speaker, he said, had also writen leters to the opposition leaders for their input on the electoral voting system but so far no reply had been given by them.
The information minister said the government could not wait for the opposition’s response indefinitely as it wanted to hold next general elections through the EVMS and grant overseas Pakistanis the right to franchise.
Both the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PMLN) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), he said, want to oppose the move of granting the right of vote to the expatriates as they are not their supporters. “The two parties should openly express their viewpoint whether they wanted to give the vote right to the overseas Pakistanis or not.”
Karachi bypolls: A fierce contest takes place between the candidates of the major political parties in the by-election for National Assembly seat, NA-249 Karachi, on Thursday.
The seat fell vacant due to the resignation of Faisal Vawda of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) as he fought the Senate election in March and won it. He had won this seat in the 2018 general elections defeating Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PMLN) President Shahbaz Sharif with a close margin.
Now, the main contenders for this seat are the candidates of the PML-N, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), PTI, Pakistan Sarzameen Party (PSP) and proscribed Tehreek-e-labbaik Pakistan (TLP). Since all the parties have their pockets of votes in the constituency, a close contest is going to take place and the winner may not have a major lead.
Meanwhile, more than 2,600 registered voters participated in a Gallup survey, carried out from April 10 to 20 According to it, 38 percent of the people said they will vote for PMLN due to its development works, 35 percent believed it was a good party, 34 percent voted because it helps the poor, while 29 percent said the party had curbed terrorism.