1. Democracy is a form of
government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions
that affect their lives. Democracy allows eligible citizens to participate
equally – either directly or through elected representatives in the proposal,
development, and creation of laws. The nature of democracy is that elected
officials are accountable to the people, and they must return to the voters at
prescribed intervals to seek their mandate to continue in office. For that
reason most democratic constitutions provide that elections are held at fixed
regular intervals. An election is a formal decision making process by which a
population chooses an individual to hold public office. Electoral systems are
the detailed constitutional arrangements and voting systems that convert the
vote into political decision.
2. A critical element in
maintaining election integrity is sound management of elections by a credible
election management body. To be credible, the electoral administration has to
be impartial and have the institutional capacity to hold free and fair
elections. In a well-entrenched democracy, the institution that administers
elections is usually taken for granted. It is universally accredited fact that
an election is not only the largest and
most complex logistical operation that a country ever undertakes in peacetime,
but also one that may affect the nature of the government and society at a
fundamental level. An operation of such magnitude requires both professional
managers and skilled technicians.
3. In view of the above, it is worth
mentioning here that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is fully
cognizant of its constitutional obligations towards conduct of free, fair and
transparent elections and in this regard, ECP is determined to take each and
every step to achieve this goal. ECP has introduced many reforms in the
electoral process because electoral reform describes the process of introducing
fair electoral systems where they are not in place, or improving the fairness
or effectiveness of existing systems. ECP has taken the initiative and decided
to efficaciously plan various phases of elections right from the preparation of
electoral rolls up to the introduction of state of the art electoral
technologies in the electoral process. This decision is, without any exaggeration,
a right step at right time in the right direction with Right leadership at the
helm of affairs.
4. After the dissolution of
assemblies, the ECP issued schedule for the General Elections 2013 according to
which polling will be held on 11-05-2013. After the promulgation of 18th
Amendments, permanent independent Election Commission was constituted and
General Elections-2013 is the first election which is being conducted by
permanent Election Commission. ECP has taken a number of steps for the conduct
of free and fair elections in the country and forthcoming elections will be
unique in many aspects and nation is going to witness tangible change in the
electioneering process in the country, a brief epitome of which is as under:
a. Issuance of various unprecedented
directives amply depicts the resolve of ECP for the conduct of free, fair and
transparent elections.
b. Availability of an authentic and credible
voters’ list is one of the pre-requisites for holding free, fair and
transparent elections in Ge-2013, first time in the history of Pakistan, fully
computerized electoral rolls with photograph will be used.
c. With the consultant of all stakeholders,
ECP has finalized Code of Conduct for the political parties and contesting
candidates.
d. First time in the history of Pakistan,
Result Management System has been
introduced which is being used by all Returning Officers.
e. ECP has launched SMS service whereby
voter’s information including name, serial number at which his/her name is
written in the electoral rolls and the name and location of the polling station
will be provided to voters. This voting information can be obtained by each
voter by sending his/her CNIC number on “8300”.
f. The Judicial Officers have been appointed
as District Returning Officers / Returning Officers.
g. Two-members monitoring team in each
national assembly constituency and its corresponding provincial assembly
constituencies have been deployed with a mandate to report to the DRO / RO regarding
violation of code of conduct and teams will also assess the election expenses
in respect of each contesting candidate during campaign period.
h. The DROs/ROs have been invested with
special powers of Magistrate First Class enabling them to consider and initiate
action on the reports of the monitoring teams, fix the responsibility and
impose appropriate penalty on the violators through summary trials.
i. Allowing observation of election
process by national and International observers enhances the transparency in
the election process. ECP has welcomed National and International observers to
observe the campaign period, polling day proceedings and post-poll election
process.
j. Identification cards with photograph
are being issued to the presiding officer of each polling station which he will
be obliged to wear on his chest during the polling process.
k. ECP has decided to use ‘Tamper-evident
bag’ for sending result of count at the polling station on Form-XIV by the
Presiding Officer to the Returning Officer and for transmitting the
consolidated result in Form-XVI and XVII to the ECP by the Returning Officer.
l. In each district, a contingency plan
has been prepared by the District Police Officer by categorizing polling
stations in category-A (most sensitive), category-B (sensitive) and category-C
(normal). Police efforts of maintaining law and order in teach constituency
will be reinforced by deploying Rangers / FC at sensitive polling stations. In
addition, the army personnel will also be deployed at the polling stations
wherever required.
m. In order to ensure quick disposal of
election petitions in accordance with law, retired District & Sessions
Judges have been appointed as Election Tribunals who will dispose of election
petitions by hearing the same on day to day basis.
n. Effective and transparent mechanisms for
dealing with complaints promote the accountability of the electoral management
body and can assists in enhancing the acceptability of election outcomes by
political participants and the public in general. Hence, ECP has devised
complaint managements systems through which complaints are being managed on
fast track basis.
o. In context of alleged complaints of bogus
voting in the polling stations during previous elections, the ECP has decided
that the electoral rolls with photographs will be used during General Elections
2013.These electoral rolls will be provided to the presiding officers and
voters will also be required to put their thumb impression in the blank column
adjacent to their photograph.
p. For the purpose of imposing thumb
impressions, magnetized ink will be used which is well known for its security
features and clarity of thumb impressions. The electoral rolls with photograph
and thumb impressions will help facilitate smooth conduct of poll and it will
also help the election tribunals to resolve the election disputes regarding
bogus voting at the polling stations as these electoral rolls can be used for
Automatic Fingerprint Analysis System (AFIS).
On the occasion of General Election-2013, Pakistan Post is issuing a commemorative postage Stamp of Rs.8/- denomination on May 11, 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment