The delimitation debate

The delimitation of constituency boundaries and the associated movement — on paper not in actuality — of voter populations so close to a general election was always going to be a pressure point. The majority of politicians of all parties would rather that the status quo be maintained, but even on the provisional evidence of what is a flawed census it is obvious that there have been significant shifts in populations and constituency boundaries must reflect this. The parliamentarians are minded to put the brakes on the  (ECP) and formed a parliamentary committee on delimitation which the ECP promptly dubbed ‘a useless exercise’; going on to issue an ‘order’ that they had no role to play in the matter and that they should mind their own business and do as they were told.

The commission met on Thursday, March 15^th along with representatives of the ECP who handed over the ‘order’ signed by the chief election commissioner. Members of the commission protested, argued that it was they who were the principal stakeholders and finalised their recommendations anyway. Hold fast, says the ECP, the correct route is via legal and constitutional means and objections are to be filed in the form of petitions.

The argy-bargy could go on for months and still not be resolved by the polling day. At issue among other knotty problems is the mandate of the ECP and whether it is constitutionally permitted to issue orders as in this instance. That could require a judicial resolution. There are issues especially around the size — greater or smaller — of some constituencies that do appear anomalous but are explained by the ECP as it was attempting to avoid overlapping constituencies. Whatever the rights and wrongs — and both sides in this instance have valid points to make — the fact is that the electoral shape of Pakistan has to change if it is to be anything like a fair(er) representation of the demographic shifts since the last census. The status quo is going to be upset and there are going to be winners and losers even before a vote is cast. Democracy — it was never going to be easy.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2018.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.