Parliamentary panel hearing: Election fact sheet to be released today

Election Commission of Pakistan rejects PTI chief’s allegation that last year’s polls were rigged

ISLAMABAD: In its ‘fact sheet on the 2013 elections’, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has claimed that despite several administrative glitches last year’s polls were fairer than the electoral exercise in 2008, poll officials said on Sunday.

The poll supervisory body is expected to unveil its fact sheet before the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms on Monday (today).



The fact sheet also rejected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s allegation that last year’s general elections, won by Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N, were rigged.

During Monday’s hearing, the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) is also expected to brief the 33-member parliamentary panel headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

According to the fact sheet, “No excess ballot papers were printed during last year’s polls.”  It states that a “total of 180 million ballot papers were printed. The PCP printed 112.5 million while the Security Printing Corporation printed the remaining 67.5 million ballot papers.”

At a time when the furore over the fraudulent voting has intensified, the fact sheet states that both local and international observers declared the elections transparent.

Quoting a report by the European Union Election Observers Mission on last year’s polls, the fact sheet states that “a strong democratic commitment was demonstrated in the 2013 elections, by the state authorities of Pakistan, civil society, political parties and voters.”

Commenting on the issue, ECP Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan said that the poll body has advised the government to carry out census with fresh delimitation of constituencies to establish a fair electoral system in the country.

Defying the rising chorus of dissent, the ECP secretary said: “Last year’s elections were the best polls in Pakistan’s history. “Improvement in verification of fingerprints, delimitation, national census and electronic machines for voters have been put on top of our agenda,” he added.



The poll body will also present proposals received from members of civil society, lawyers, general public and parliamentarians to the committee to ensure that the electoral process is transparent.

“We want to match the Indian electoral voting system,” said PML-N lawmaker Abdul Hakeem Baloch, a key member of the electoral reforms committee. Restructuring of Pakistan’s poll body is inevitable now, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2014.