ECP to allow polling booths in IDP camps

Parties must conduct intra-party elections before receiving symbols.

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday decided to amend the Representation of Peoples Act to ensure the right to vote for a large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) by establishing polling stations in their respective camps.

Earlier, the ECP had finalised moves to establish polling stations within IDP camps to facilitate the displaced electorate, in the wake of militancy in Fata and Balochistan.

Sources revealed that the decision was taken after a letter written by Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) had claimed that up to 200,000 people belonging to Dera Bugti and Kohlu had migrated to safer locations during military operations.

However, during a meeting held on voter arrangements at IDP camps, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, member Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Justice (retd) Shahzad Akbar Khan pointed out that under Section 8 of the Representation of Peoples Act, polling stations could not be established outside the concerned constituency’s limits.

Briefing reporters following the meeting, Director General Elections Sher Afgan said that in light of the bar on establishment of polling stations outside constituency limits, the ECP had decided to propose a constitutional amendment in section 8 to do away with the restriction.

He added that this amendment had been prepared and would be added to the existing draft prepared by ECP which will now seek to amend over two dozen sections of the Act.

‘No symbol without intra-party polls’

The ECP once again warned political parties that they would not be entitled to election symbols if they have not held their intra party elections.

Its media office said in a statement that every political party would also have to submit details of its assets for allotment of election symbols.

Though the law stipulates holding of intra party elections as one of the important preconditions for a party to contest elections, ECP does not have a mechanism to verify if such elections were held in a truly democratic manner.

As a result, some political parties have cosmetically completed the legal requirement in just one day and submitted a list of “elected office bearers.” Parties that have undertaken this method of meeting the ECP requirement include the ruling PPP parliamentarians.

According to a list made by the ECP, some parties who have not held intra-party elections include PML-Q, PPP (Shaheed Bhutto), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Dr Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehrik, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, while PTI is in the process of holding its elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2013.