Righting electoral wrongs

There is no dispute that there is much that needs adjustment in the national electoral system

There is no dispute that there is much that needs adjustment if not actual repair and replacement in the national electoral system. That said, there is considerable dispute about how that should be done, and who should implement the adjustments. The National Assembly has now approved the 22^nd Amendment, which assuming it is ratified by the Senate, will change the eligibility criteria for the post of Chief Election Commissioner as well as the members that constitute the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Twice in six years, parliament has made changes at the top of the ECP, the last being in 2011 when retired high court judges were appointed as ECP members for five years and their term expires on June 12 this year.

Whilst improving the ECP’s effectiveness at its apex is important, it is below that apex that most problems with the electoral system lie. The 2013 elections raised many concerns across the political landscape even though independent observers considered them some of the freest and best-conducted general elections they had seen in Pakistan. Better perhaps, but deeply flawed still and the problems mostly arose because of poor training and empowerment of the ECP field staff, the men and women who are the backbone of the electoral process, who make it happen on the day — or not as is sometimes the case. What needs to be considered is the performance of the district election commissioner and his or her staff as well as that of returning officers, and not just that of the apex members of the ECP. They lower-level staff are poorly paid and trained. They are under-resourced, with their offices often situated in rented accommodation that have few creature comforts. That they may not perform their allotted tasks efficiently is perhaps hardly surprising given the lowly status they are accorded. Tinkering with the apex posts of the ECP will do little to fix the systemic problems further down the organisation, and until those are addressed, the electoral system is going to remain flawed.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2016.

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