Data about voters but not candidates

Early next week the country’s poll supervisory body will be signalling the formal beginning of the election process by releasing a preliminary list of 104 million people deemed eligible to cast their ballots. At this point registered voters constitute almost half of the country’s population. The voter list may be expanded or cropped at a date due to be decided later by the Election Commission of Pakistan following a routine but still cumbersome verification process. Some remarkable figures have begun to trickle out: a little over 8 million voters out of a total of 104 million will be casting their votes for the first time and they represent the swelling of the electorate by as much as 21 per cent as compared to the 2013 election. Another significant change is the loss of 800,000 voters from the 2013 voters’ list owing to one reason or the other.

The focus of the 2018 election is obviously on the youth and the ECP has encouraged both people and government to make it more inclusive for the younger, first-time voter. Such an approach can serve as a tool kit for nation-building and aid the cause of democracy at large. The emphasis on youth is not misplaced as this segment of the population would weigh heavily on the outcome of the 2018 election. Their numbers (44 per cent of registered voters) are significant and the best possible ways ought to be found to keep them interested and involved.

It is fair also to expect the authorities to share enough information about the candidates in the election. Unfortunately, the Election Act of 2017 adopted by parliament seems to prevent a citizen from gaining access to information about issues of public importance. Such hindrances are highly unusual in a democratic polity. Voters cannot cast their ballot in favour of a candidate whom they know very little about. The piece of legislation, for instance, does not force an election contestant to declare his or her dual nationality or disclose whether they own a residence permit outside Pakistan. More importantly, it does not tell us whether a candidate has a criminal record or not or whether they are taxpayers. Without such disclosures, voters will remain in the dark.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2018.

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