Election code of conduct: Political outfits avoid sharing input in writing

Almost all parties disagreed with the proposals at last month’s consultative meeting

ISLAMABAD: Even a week after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) asked for input on the draft code of conduct for the next elections, no political party bothered to respond to the request.

In response to the ECP invitation, 16 political parties represented in parliament sent their second tier representatives to the consultative meeting on October 26. All these parties were sent the draft code of conduct for 2018 elections before the meeting.

“No political party bothered to send any suggestion in writing,” a senior ECP official said, lamenting the callous attitude of political parties on reforming the system.

Before notifying the new code of conduct, the ECP is planning to hold a similar consultative meeting with representatives of the media and civil society on November 17.  During last month’s consultative meeting, almost all parties disagreed with these suggestions.

It appeared that most of the mainstream parties were averse to stringent rules and regulations in this regard.

PML-N’s representative opined that the ban on ‘jalsas and jaloos’ was not covered in the law, and there was also no law governing the size of banners so the ECP should not ban these.

The ECP’s draft code had proposed that the candidates should hold corner meetings, instead of rallies and processions.

Similarly, the ruling party opposed the ban on the use of private vehicles for bringing voters to polling stations, saying that constituencies in Balochistan were much larger in terms of area than ones in Punjab and Sindh and voters were unable to reach polling stations on their own.

PTI also opposed the proposal, suggesting that in a constituency covering more than 1,500 square kilometres, the ECP should allow providing transport to voters. However, it opposed such an arrangement for constituencies smaller than this size.

PTI representative also suggested increasing the limit of election expenses for National Assembly and provincial assembly seats.

Currently, the limit for electioneering expenses for a National Assembly seat is Rs1.5 million and a provincial assembly candidate can spend Rs1 million.

No one ever follows this limit and the ECP has no mechanism to enforce the limit on its own.

Smaller parties such as PML-Functional and Ijazul Haq’s PML-Zia support both the proposals.

PML-Q proposed allowing one major public rally for every candidate. It proposed the use of pamphlets and small banners while proposing a ban on announcing development projects.

MQM proposed that the ECP should monitor election expenditures, but the limit for individual candidates and political should be increased reasonably.

All these proposals were given verbally and all representatives of political parties promised to send the same in writing once they got the go-ahead from their respective top leaderships. However, no political party had yet sent anything in writing.

Some proposals contained in the draft code of conduct needed legislations to make them effective.

Keeping in line with all political parties’ will to maintain status quo, it is highly unlikely that the ECP would get any parliamentary approval in this regard.

Officials in the legal wing of the ECP said the commission could present its proposals to the Supreme Court along with the minutes of the consultative meetings and get the approval of the superior judiciary.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2016.