Election preparations: Overseas Pakistanis unlikely to vote in polls
After granting voting rights to overseas Pakistanis earlier this year, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is now finding it impossible to implement the decision, a commission official told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity.
“It was our utmost desire to grant voting rights to the overseas Pakistanis in the upcoming general elections but despite our best efforts the idea remains unpractical,” the official said.
“We will continue to look for a solution but it is our assessment that the scheme can’t be feasible; at least for the upcoming general elections,” he added.
After lengthy deliberations with stakeholders over the last six months, the ECP concluded that giving the right to vote to overseas Pakistanis will be highly expensive and cannot be supported by the commission’s budget.
Besides the budget, logistics have also proven to be a major hurdle. Establishing polling booths with the required polling staff worldwide turned out to be too difficult, as did the supply of secret ballot papers in each and every city where overseas Pakistanis are based, in time for the elections. It was also observed during deliberations that such a facility was not available to the citizens of any other country.
Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Awami National Party, Tehreek-e-Insaf and Muttahida Qaumi Movement have a potentially strong vote bank in the US, Europe, the Middle East and some African countries, and are keen for the policy to be implemented. Overseas Pakistanis are also a major source of donations for some of the political parties that have been advocating voting rights for their overseas-based political supporters.
All political parties will be taken into confidence at a meeting in Islamabad on September 27. ECP officials will also brief parties on the arrangements made so far for the next elections, scheduled for 2013.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2012.
COMMENTS (12)
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The easiest way is to introduce a postal ballot system. I doubt that ECP officials are sincere enough to take the time and pain to implement this.
ECP must not give up this easy, there are almost 4 million overseas Pakistanis, whose families and interests and loyalty is still with Pakistan, we are here to earn and contribute to US$ 10 Billion to Pak economy, we have every right to cast vote for our future !
ECP you have to find a way...
@Maha: I can tell Jamaat-e-Islami would like this decision because all those foreign Pakistanis have chosen to left Pakistan. Their loyalties to Pakistan are mushkook.It is better to throw them out of election process the same way as they were thrown out from assemblies. Chief Justice Zindabad.
The Baaboos have it again! Why can't votes be casted in embassies via a website? That could be the beginning of modernising the election process in Pakistan by ECP but they gave up before even attempting.
Iranis in Canada got to vote for their elections from here.
I don't think that PTI will settle with this decision. PTI have a big number of Overseas Pakistanis waiting to vote for them. Rubbish!
Absolute non sense; ECP should make arrangements & should use electronic means for overseas voters.
Unacceptable!!!
The Best possible setup to vote in General Election is to allocate separate Seats for Foreign like 3 or 4 Four Seats over all. So it is easy for election commission to prepare a setup.
Nonsense ! I live abroad and I wanna vote for Imran khan. Not letting us vote will be a big set back for PTI.
Nonsense indeed - my Romanian friends voted from their embassy in Denmark for their elections. And no one wants to have it in 'each and every city' in the world : just make the polling booths where ever we already have embassies, or for a start, just do it for countries where the Pakistani expats are in large numbers like UK, Norway etc.
This is such nonsense. I live in the UAE and I have French colleagues who voted in the recent Presidential Elections in their country from their embassy in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I admit that it would be much more complicated, i.e. multiple candidates, people having different domiciles etc. However it can be managed if the process is made electronic as is the case in many countries in the world.