Local govt elections: Polls body in limbo over procurement of ballots

Director general says polls in doubt if ballot papers are not printed.

ISLAMABAD:

Welcome to the worst kept secret in Pakistan. All stakeholders know that local body elections are unlikely to be held on the dates given by the Supreme Court yet nobody is ready to admit it publicly.

Though the chief election commissioner held a meeting with provincial chief secretaries on Tuesday the Election Commission of Pakistan stopped short of an explicit declaration that polls would take place on the given dates as one question remains unanswered – printing of over 500 million ballot papers.

In addition to the ballot papers which are supposed to be printed on a particular paper, magnetic ink for 2.2 million stamp pads are needed and, above all, the ECP, according to the rules, cannot announce the schedule prior to delimitation.



“Elections cannot take place if ballot papers are not printed even if the pre-polls stage is complete,” ECP Director General Sher Afghan told reporters after the meeting.

The meeting was attended by all provincial chief secretaries, National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) chairman, managing directors of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) and Pakistan Security Printing Corporation (PSPC), representatives of the statistics and finance division, and the interior ministry.

Sources told The Express Tribune that the PSPC refused to do the job but expressed its willingness to extend limited help to the ECP regarding the printing of the ballot papers.

‘100 days to do the job’

Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) has also informed the commission that it was almost impossible to do the job in such short span of time. The PCP too has told the poll body that it needs at least 100 days to do the job, sources added.

According to the tentative schedule, the ECP will announce schedule for Sindh on November 1 for holding polls on November 27. For Punjab and Balochistan, the schedule will be announced on November 5 and polls be held on December 7, while Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the federal capital have not completed the legislation process.

In order to meet these challenges, the commission has decided to bring in other public sector printing facilities [owned and operated by public sector] including Pakistan Post, Ministry of Science and Technology and others.

Another issue that popped up in the meeting was procurement of paper. The representatives of printing presses informed the meeting that since ECP would have to print ballot papers in four or five different colours it would need at least a month to procure the paper – both in case of importing it or locally manufacturing it.

“No local mill can provide paper in this quantity and that too with special specifications within the available time. It would take mills at least one month to manufacture so much paper,” an official privy to the meeting quoted representatives of printing press as saying.

“We are going to have another session on Wednesday (today) over printing of the ballot papers with all these printing facilities,” Sher Afghan said.

Responding to a question, he said the ECP would first seek input over the printing of ballot papers and then would announce the schedule.

When asked about security of the process of printing of ballot papers if facilities, Sher Afghan said “We will deploy army and then start printing of ballot papers.”

He said that finance secretary had assured the ECP that the required funding for the job would be released to the commission in the next few days and it would not face any financial issue.

However, Afghan said that the PCSIR would get back to commission within 24 hours regarding the procurement of 2.2 million stamp pads and magnetic ink.

Talking about the process of delimitation, he said that Sindh had informed us it would take time and will complete the process by November 13.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2013.