Election Reforms. Article was originally published in the Islamabad Dateline

The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2011 approved by the cabinet in their meeting last week was a giant step forward in ensuring the implementation of fair, free and transparent elections along with increasing the secrecy, security and integrity of the databases on the election rolls. The bill with its 8 constitutional amendments links the voter on election rolls to NADRA and commences the slashing of duplicate and untraceable votes that are in the range of 30-40% according to an Islamabad Dateline report.

With the present population growth in the country at least 400,000 new citizens become eligible to vote every year but do not necessarily gain the right to vote because the electoral rolls were based on the 1998 census. In most cases political parties registered their members and followers by adding names to electoral rolls individually and very rarely did names of deceased voters get deleted to ensure larger vote banks. The requirement to use NIC cards (even the expired ones) along with plans to introduce biometric machines will streamline the electoral process and go a long way in gaining public confidence in democracy. In addition the bill proposes speedy trails of election petitions so that cases do not linger on well after the governments have been selected.

However several more changes would be required to guarantee absolute transparency and fairness of elections. Implementing the following suggestions could have far reaching effects in stabilization of the country and the prosperity of democracy.

Firstly voting needs to be mandatory and laws need to be passed to ensure that citizens perform this national duty. According to the International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance the voting turn out in Pakistan is only 38.77%. As apposed to this India stands at 60.57%, Iran at 54 % and even Afghanistan at 47.83%. Making voting compulsory will ensure that elections produce the true results of the wills of the people.

 

Just an extra word can change our future

Secondly the Election Commission of Pakistan needs to be a completely independent and autonomous constitutional body. The 18^th amendment of the constitution considerably depoliticized the selection of the Chief Election Commissioner by making it a joint consultative process of the cabinet and opposition but room for improvement still remains. In the political environment of our country it is best that the selection be made not by the legislature but rather by the independent judiciary. Anyone who is selected through the political parties themselves should not be in charge of their elections as a basic legal and moral principle. A selection by the judiciary and subsequent approval by the president should suffice.

Third, a ban needs to be placed on all transport and catering services one week before the general elections. All too often we hear of dissenting or even consenting lazy voters being filled into buses and trucks and carried away to polling stations and made to cast their votes by the rich politician or the transport mafia. The car rental business performing making bumper profits during election season is therefore no surprise. Many politicians who don’t even give zakat or income tax turn into ‘Hatim Tai’ right before elections and throw feasts that make Shiraz look stingy. The ordinary voter swept away but such last moment displays of generosity casts an emotional vote and subjects himself to 5 more years of living without roads and water. The purpose of implementing such ban is safe guard the welfare orientated bars that have been placed on election campaign spending which almost always get rudely trampled over.

The fourth suggestion is make more and closer polling stations all over the country and in my views should be no more than 3 miles in radius from population. This compensates for the lack of transport due to a possible transport ban and is helpful in keeping a public eye on polling officers.

Fifthly televised and print media debates ought to be implemented, a method often used in the western world. This exposes the representatives to the court of public and forces the truth out through heated debates. It also reduces the expenses on state and the contesting individual that are caused by the traditional rallies.

Sixth, the constitution should be amended to construct a proportional representation system in the national and provincial assemblies. Instead of voting for individuals that leads to personality worship, the people should be voting directly for the parties involved. After elections the parties can then nominate their members on the basis of the votes received for the national and provincial assemblies. It is suggested that Sainte-Laguë method devised by a French mathematician of the same name, be used for allocation of seats that are approximately proportional to the number of votes received by each party. The method is used throughout Scandinavia and other economically stable countries like Germany and New Zealand. The unmodified version of this method favors the selection of minority parties.

Finally and perhaps most importantly there is a dire need for creation of smaller provinces to ensure better administrating units on federal and provincial levels. Smaller provinces translate into less expensive and more transparent elections because of lesser influences and a greater check by the public itself. It is a pity how many politicians go and compete in regions for provincial seats where they cannot even communicate in local languages and yet win because of influence and money. Smaller provinces will lead to greater and genuine representation from the backward areas of Pakistan.

 If implemented, these reforms can have far reaching impacts on strengthening democracy and giving power to the people. They have been tried and tested in many parts of the world and the coming elections in 2013 will give us a chance to truly amend our decaying systems and introducing a culture of fairness where so far might has been right.