ISLAMABAD, Feb 27: Election Commission (EC) Secretary Kanwar Mohammad Dilshad has said the EC will reform the laws to prevent local governments’ interference in the electoral process.

Speaking at the launching of the final report of an international election observer mission here on Wednesday, Mr Dilshad said nazims played a vital role in the development of basic infrastructure for the local communities.

He, however, observed that reforms were required in the electoral laws to refrain the nazims from influencing the electoral process, especially during the conduct of polls.

He pointed out that the role of nazims during the recent general elections had been widely criticised both at the local and international levels.

“Our electoral laws are based on 1911 electoral laws prepared by Lord Minto. India and Bangladesh have already introduced a number of reforms according to their needs. We should also start working on these reforms in close coordination with the civil society organisations, political parties, Pakistan Bar Council, Pakistan Law Commission and the media,” Mr Dilshad said.

Seeking proposals from the civil society and the media in this regard, he said the media had played a “crucial and positive role”, adding that the recent elections would help bring the country on a par with the “first world democracies”.

Terming the elections “a historic and landmark achievement”, the EC secretary hoped that all the political parties would be satisfied with the performance of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to ensure free, fair and transparent polls.

He said the ECP had fulfilled its commitment to holding free, fair and transparent elections, and noted that these elections had laid a foundation for true and strong democracy in the country.

Thomas George Houlahan, the head of the 20 member international election observer mission invited by the Centre for Media and Democracy (CMD), said there were problems but overall the polls were free and fair.

“Partisanship of nazims, to include the use of public assets in backing the selected candidates, was a systematic problem,” said Mr Houlahan, who is a senior fellow of a Washington-based think tank — Centre for Security and Science. He termed the February 18 polls “the best elections Pakistan has ever had”.

He said in some ways, the recent elections were even better than the elections held in the western countries.

“For example, in the United States of America, in general elections, the display of each and every ballot to party agents during ballot counting would be more or less unthinkable. Rather, the party agents are not allowed into the room where the ballots are being counted,” he said, adding that the presence of local and international observers in such a high number and the monitoring by a broadened media made it impossible to conduct any electoral anomaly.

“The steps taken by President Musharraf and the ECP made the polls the best election the country ever had. Now this is upto the new government to take the country ahead on the path of progress and prosperity,” he said.

CMD Chairman Ayub Munir, while reading out excerpts from the final report, urged the EC and judiciary to take appropriate and immediate action on all the complaints lodged by the losing candidates with substantial proof of alleged irregularities in polling process or counting of ballots.

“To improve the voters’ turnout, the observers noted that voters’ education programme needs to be expanded and should be made more neutral. They noted that pre-election press advertisements from the Election Commission and other ministries urging Pakistanis to vote carried a photograph of the president and was prominently displayed. This is not a statement of neutrality by any measure,” he said.

Mr Munir recommended replacing the system of marking voters’ thumbs with ink by a more discreet process, perhaps using sprays or ink visible only under special lights.

The CMD observers urged the ECP to update the voters’ lists and cross-check to ID lists. In this regard, the observers proposed that the two government bodies i.e. Nadra and ECP should coordinate with each other.