ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has sought effective control over all poling staff, including returning officers, district returning officers and presiding officers with a view to making the electoral processes more transparent and credible.

Briefing the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms on the revised draft unified election law 2014, ECP Secretary Ishtaik Ahmad Khan said that a draft bill to this effect had already been sent to the ministry of law.

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The issue surfaced at a time when the role of the polling staff in the 2013 polls has been under severe criticism, with many wondering as to why none of them had been taken to task when the verification of thumb impressions of voters by Nadra in various constituencies had revealed polling of multiple votes by individuals, which was impossible without the collusion of the polling staff.

Highlighting key recommendations requiring urgent legislation, the ECP Secretary proposed fresh delimitation of constituencies using geographic information system (GIS) for next general elections based on new population census. He said that fresh census was a pre-requisite as enormous demographic changes had taken place since 1998.

He suggested a timeframe of 120 days for holding elections both after completion of the term of assemblies and dissolution prior to the completion of the term.

He said that there should be increased timeframe for each activity of election programme and the list of polling stations and polling staff should be finalised 60 days prior to elections.

Mr Khan said that legislation for introduction of biometric system and electronic voting machines should be made. Referring to legislation for enabling overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right of vote from abroad, he said a bill had been pending before the Senate Stranding Committee on Law and Justice.

He said the committee might also consider amendment bill already moved by the ministry of overseas Pakistanis proposing reserved seats to ensure representation of Pakistani expatriates in the National and provincial assemblies.

He also suggested a review of existing system of reserved seats in the National and provincial assemblies for women and non-Muslims to see whether the existing mode of allocation of seats to political parties on the basis of number of general seats secured by each political party can be replaced with a more democratic method of allocation of such seats on the basis of the total number of votes obtained by each political party.

He said under the proposed procedure, the list of nominees of candidates for reserved seats might be submitted by the party leader of each political party with the returning officer or provincial election commissioner, who will draw lots in the presence of representatives of each political party contesting election to determine the priority and notification of the same in the official gazette.

A participant of the meeting told Dawn that members of the parliamentary panel wondered as to why a high percentage of votes could not be verified by Nadra.

The ECP secretary said that specifications for magnetised ink had been given by Nadra and the ink prepared by Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) — a subsidiary of the ministry of science and technology.

The committee decided to summon representatives from Nadra, PCSIR and ministry of science and technology in the next meeting scheduled for Sept 1 to seek suggestions.

The committee was told that over 400 petitions had been filed with the election tribunals out of which 76 per cent had so far been disposed of.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2014