Election irregularities

It’s extremely sad that our lawmakers appear to be lawbreakers and may be disqualified in bulk under corrupt practices

On December 4, by-elections took place in two national and eight provincial constituencies. These constituencies lost their representatives because they had lied about their dual nationality. Article 63(c) clearly states the “person shall be disqualified if he acquires the citizenship of a foreign state.” In the light of this article, the Supreme Court disqualified 11 members while the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) allegedly declared 19 MPs having foreign citizenship. Along with Governor of Sindh Ishratul Ebad, some more MPs informed the ECP about having dual nationality. Prior to this scandal, a significant number of MPs were disqualified due to having fake degrees.

During a recently-held workshop on political finance, some participants analysed asset declarations of political parties and MPs. Should the ECP audit them, the accounts of most parties and their MPs’ asset declarations would not stand the scrutiny. This is a shameful and multidimensional scandal that has engulfed the whole spectrum of our political leadership. It’s extremely sad that our lawmakers appear to be lawbreakers and could be disqualified in bulk under corrupt practices. The ECP then would have to hold by-elections prior to general elections in at least 90 per cent of constituencies. Has our political leadership learnt any lesson from these scandals? Is it going to scrutinise applications of the by-election candidates thoroughly and diligently? Will the ECP evolve any system to probe validity of claims made in nomination papers? I have little hope from the political leadership as it has continued playing games that alienate the electorates from the electoral processes. But that hope is diminishing due to the ECP’s failure to catch candidates who blatantly violated its newly-introduced code of conduct, such as Abdul Qadir Gilani and Shaukat Bosan, who provided transport to voters while displaying party stickers and flags on vans. They also distributed lunch boxes to ECP staff. We have proof of these violations; some of it has already been emailed to the ECP. Moreover, the statements of election expenses and receipts submitted by the candidates to the ECP show serious discrepancies. I appeal to the ECP to initiate a thorough probe into the NA-151 by-election, in order to enhance its credibility.

Had the ECP thoroughly scrutinised the nomination papers of the candidates in 2008, the country would have been saved from humiliation and millions of rupees from the holding of so many by-elections. Now, the holding of by-elections in 10 constituencies is so close to the end of current assemblies’ tenure that it has attracted a little media attention. I hope the ECP officials do not take this lightly. Another replay of NA-151 will undermine the commission’s credibility. In order to deter potential candidates from committing corrupt practices, the ECP should set up a mechanism to scrutinise the nomination papers and applicants’ asset statements.

We have fascinating examples from other countries where citizens forced corrupt politicians out of the electoral field. In South Korea in the 1990s, civil society organisations launched a ‘blacklisting campaign’ called Nakchon-Nakson. The campaign successfully kicked out corrupt politicians and forced the state to introduce political and election reforms. As many as 85 per cent of the blacklisted candidates lost elections and the campaign deeply influenced civil society organisations in Japan and many other countries. Coming back to Pakistan, we have alarming similarities with the Korean political situation of the 80s and 90s. There appears to be a huge gap between political elite and civil society and peoples’ aspirations. Political institutions are hugely underdeveloped in comparison to civil society and the state. The political elite has encouraged parochialism based on patronage instead of political programme. If political leaders remain insulated from the heat of the peoples’ rage, then someone will fill this vacuum. The leaders must clean their parties of the corrupt elements. Civil society organisations can’t continue to merely observing the elections; they must challenge the corrupt practices of the corrupt politicians.

There is enough data to prepare a list of corrupt MPs and make it public, as the civil society did in Korea. But first, there is a need to strategise the blacklisting campaign. If party leaders continue to field corrupt candidates, then we may witness a blacklisting campaign in Pakistan, too because only clean, incorrupt and law-abiding MPs can give us good governance and confidence to the electorates in democratic development.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2012.