Govt proposes electoral reforms to ensure transparency in polls
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan on Monday said that the PTI government intended to introduce electoral reforms in the country that would ensure transparency in the democratic process and level the playing field for all parties.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad alongside Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry, Awan explained that 49 sections in the Elections Act 2017 were being introduced, deleted or amended.
Sharing details on some of the major amendments, he said that Section 103 was being amended according to the prime minister's vision to enable the use of Electronic
Voting Machines (EVMs) in the elections to resolve the issue of rigging. "This will be the first big reform in Pakistan's history."
Besides, he said, Section 94 would also be amended to extend the right of vote to overseas Pakistanis. He added that this was also a big reform which had been demanded by overseas Pakistanis. A third reform was related to political parties and had two components to it, said Awan.
"Democracy should be seen in political parties," he said. The first was that according to Section 202, political parties should have a strength of 10,000 members in order to get registered as political parties. Secondly a new section, Section 213(A), was being introduced which would make it mandatory for political parties to hold annual conventions where people could speak up and give their comments on the performance of the party and its leaders.
The fourth big reform, according to Awan, had to do with "complaints about polling staff and officers". He said that a provision was being introduced in Section 15 which would allow for the right to challenge the appointment of a polling agent or officer within a period of 15 days if anyone had reservations about it.
Another reform would be for lectoral rolls to be prepared on the basis of registration data with Nadra. This measure, he said, would make people who resorted to illicit and fake means "fear most".
Awan went on to explain that the delimitation exericse in constituencies based on population would be finished and some provisions of the Elections Act 2017 were being deleted. The list of registered voters with Nadra would now be used instead.
"We are also bringing two constitutional amendments," said the adviser - the first on open balloting in Senate elections and allowing overseas Pakistanis to contest the elections. Awan said the issue of electoral reforms had not created any constitutional crisis, however, a "crisis of trust in constitutional institutions has been created."
He termed this crisis as a "very dangerous thing" and said that countries were not made up of just land and buildings, but the people and its institutions. He added that the government only had two options after the results of the 2018 elections were rejected by the opposition.