Election Act comes under scrutiny

 On July 28, 2017, the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif for not disclosing in his nomination papers the salary that he was entitled to receive from a Dubai-based company – Capital FZE – owned by one of his sons.

Though Nawaz insisted that he did not draw any salary from the company, the top court, while relying on the Black’s Law Dictionary, ruled that he had been “dishonest” by not declaring the “receivable salary” in his nomination papers for the 2013 election, as required under Section 12(2)(f) of the ROPA.

Now a committee, formed by the government led by the PML-N, is reviewing a proposed amendment that seeks to add the phrase “accounts receivable” to the definition of assets contained in Section 2 of the Election Act, 2017—to address the ambiguity that resulted in Nawaz’s exit.

The Electoral Reforms Committee has so far held several in-camera sessions to deliberate on roughly 70 proposed amendments to the Elections Act, 2017.

The proposals put forth by various political parties deal with a number of issues including delay in the announcement of election results and imposing a ban on a political party.

Surveillance cameras at polling booths

Newly-proposed Section 59A (installation of surveillance cameras) states that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) shall arrange the installation of a surveillance camera at every polling booth of all polling stations to record poll proceedings, counting of ballot papers and preparation of results by the presiding officer.

Proposed 59A (2) states that the surveillance camera should not compromise the secrecy of the ballot by violating the privacy of a voter who is marking a ballot paper.

On completion of the proceedings under section 90, the sub-clause 3 states, the presiding officer shall seal the surveillance camera with its recording in a packet provided for the purpose and deliver it along with the result and other packets to the returning officer.

59A (5) states that the recording may be viewed by the ECP in connection with the exercise of its power under the act or by an election tribunal in connection with hearing of an election petition as provided in Section 155.

A copy of the recording may also be made available, on payment of prescribed costs, to the contesting candidates.

The remarks section on surveillance cameras states that if installation of cameras at all the polling booths is not acceptable on the grounds of being prohibitively costly, the new section may provide for installation of cameras at highly sensitive polling stations only.

It adds that the district returning officer shall, on the basis of reports from the district administration or the law enforcement agencies or information provided by the contesting candidate to the effect that there is reasonable apprehension that polling at a polling station may not be peaceful, free and transparent, declare such polling station to the “highly sensitive”.

At such polling stations, the ECP shall make security arrangements as well as install a surveillance camera at each polling booth of all polling stations to record poll proceedings, counting of ballot papers and preparation of results by the presiding officer.

New sub-section under Section 77(3) proposes that a polling agent shall, for the effective performance of his functions and to ensure transparency, be allowed to carry with him inside the polling station a mobile phone with camera to record the polling or counting proceedings if he so desires.

Voting by overseas Pakistanis

It seems that overseas Pakistanis would not be able to cast vote in the coming general elections as the documents show that the wording of Section 94 (voting by overseas Pakistanis) has been reverted to original wording of the section.

“The Commission may conduct pilot projects for voting by overseas Pakistanis in bye-elections to ascertain the technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility of such voting.

“[It] shall share the results with the government, which shall, within fifteen days from the commencement of the session of a house after the receipt of the report, lay the same before both Houses of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament),” the original wording reads.

The proposed amendment states that the ECP shall share the consolidated results along with recommendations in the form of a report with the government, which shall lay the same in parliament and arrange discussion thereon followed by appropriate legislation.

Election expenses

It has been proposed that the maximum limit on election expenses for a National Assembly seat should be increased from Rs4 million to Rs10 million.

For a provincial assembly seat, the maximum limit for election expenses should be from Rs2 million to Rs4 million.

Campaign financing

Proposed amendment in Section 211 states that the campaign finance of a political party, the list of the contributors and the amount should be more clear in terms, adding that the “amount of contributions shall be equal or more than 1 million not Rs100,000.”

Foreign funding

Proposed amendment in Section 213 states that “if a political party is found guilty of foreign funding, the members of the said party in the National Assembly and a Provincial Assembly shall cease to be the members of the house.”

Dissolution of political party

The committee has dropped a proposal to turn the parliament into the supreme authority on matters related to banning a party or annulling membership of a lawmaker.

Talking to the media after a committee meeting last week, Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar had confirmed dropping the proposal.

RTS

Regarding the Result Transmission System (RTS), the proposed amendments state that the presiding officer shall immediately take a snapshot of the result of the count and send the snapshot electronically or through other appropriate technologies to the authorities concerned.

In case internet connectivity is not available or it is not practicable to send the results electronically, “the presiding officer shall immediately proceed physically with the results to the returning officer”.

The ECP shall concurrently place the snapshot of results of the count received from the officer on its website.

Population

On the population of constituencies of an assembly or a local government, it was proposed that it shall not be necessary to strictly adhere to existing district boundaries.

But the commerce minister, Syed Naveed Qamar, among others, proposed that the ECP should not strictly adhere to district boundaries while carrying out delimitation.

Others

Through a substitution in Section 35, it has been proposed that after every revision under Section 23, the registration officer shall publish the electoral roll for each electoral area.

He will do that after ensuring that all eligible citizens of 18 years and above to whom Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) have been issued till date as per information provided by the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) have been entered in the electoral roll of that area.

Apart from initiating disciplinary proceedings, a new sub-section in Section 55 has empowered the ECP to initiate criminal proceedings against the concerned election official and public servant or any other person in service of Pakistan who obstructs the poll.

Section 59’s new clause proposes that not more than two polling stations shall be established in the same building.