ECP clears the air on Senate elections

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday announced that the Senate elections can’t take place before February 10, 2021, but it simultaneously did not rule out the possibility as well as the government’s hope that the polls for the upper house of parliament can be held in coming February.

With the ECP’s statement amid opposition parties’ threat to hand in resignations from the federal and provincial legislatures, the government is still hopeful that the Senate polls – scheduled for March – can be held at an earlier date and it could win control of the upper house by snatching majority from the PML-N.

Though the official statement said that the ECP would announce the date for the Senate elections at a suitable time, it recalled that the previous four-to-five Senate elections were held in the first week of March.

ECP said that half of the Senate members will retire on March 11, 2021, after completing their six-year term and, according to Article 224(3) of the Constitution, elections cannot be held before the 30-day period on seats that will fall vacant after the expiry of the term of the members of the Senate.

“This means elections on vacant Senate seats cannot be held before February 10, 2021,” it stated; leaving the government’s hope of seeing the elections happening in February alive without giving any surety.

While commenting on the ECP’s statement, the Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad said that “ECP has confirmed that Senate elections can take place 30 days before the members’ retirement,” adding that “this is what the government earlier said.”

However, the science minister said that the government has not sent any formal request to ECP for the elections schedule. Thrice, the minister recalled, the Senate elections have taken place 30 days before and it has remained a tradition so that the senators have ample amount of time to take oath.

As per the ECP statement, Fawad said, the poll body “should announce Senate elections’ schedule till mid-January so that the elections could be held between February 12 and 15.” Fawad said that ECP should not come under pressure from the opposition parties rather it should act as per the method prescribed in the Constitution.

All over the world, he said, governments announce dates for elections but the PTI government has not sent a formal request for election date to ECP, adding that ECP should use its discretion and hold elections between February 12 and 15. This would be a better way and provide time to the upcoming senators to prepare.

PML-N’s Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha said that the ECP has correctly stated the process under Article 224(3) that Senate elections can’t take place before February 10, adding that it also correctly mentioned that they usually take place during March.

Legally and constitutionally, Ranjha said, total responsibility of conducting Senate elections lies with the ECP and the ruling party has nothing to do with the election process. “Senate election is purely ECP’s domain,” he said. 

As soon as Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed his wish to remodel the Senate election process, it discomforted the opposition parties and they reacted strongly against the development.

On December 15, the federal cabinet meeting – chaired by the Prime Minister – had mulled over holding the Senate election in February instead of March sensing that PTI was just a breath away from becoming the largest party in Senate and hoping that majority in the House would solve its legislative problems as well as leave the 11-party opposition anti-government movement redundant.

On December 17, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz had criticized the government over its intentions to prepone the Senate elections by a month and holding by-elections in case the opposition resigned from the assemblies.

Amid rising political temperature, political experts said that one thing is certain after the ECP’s statement that Senate elections can’t be held before February 10 next year. Before that, they said, both the sides can take extreme positions, adding a rise in confrontational politics was expected once the schedule for the Senate elections is announced.