Cabinet makes ECP autonomous

Source: 
Pakistan Today
Publication date: 
Feb 08 2017

Federal Cabinet on Tuesday accorded approval to Electoral Reforms Bill – paving the way for envisaging “total financial, administrative and functional autonomy” to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

However, the bill did not touch upon implementation of articles 62 and 63 because the committee failed to evolve consensus on the issue. Hence, the issue of the implementation of ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’ for all candidates has not been touched upon in the draft legislation.

The proposed law, which will grant financial and administrative autonomy to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), is expected to be presented to the Parliament next month for enactment.

The ECP would be empowered to take disciplinary action against officials deputed from other departments and ministries for election purpose. The Bill has been prepared by the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms with majority vote.

The proposed law is expected to be tabled in the National Assembly next month for enactment by the Parliament.

The cabinet, which met here with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the chair, discussed 33-point agenda, dropping the FATA Reforms Bill which triggered an outcry by FATA parliamentarians who lodged their protest in the National Assembly carrying black bands.

Under the draft bill, the election commission would be required to prepare a comprehensive action plan six months ahead of the general elections — seeking input and objections from the political parties and candidates.

A formal complaint system would be introduced enabling candidates and political parties to lodge complaints about malpractices before elections and redressal of their issues.

The new law aims at removing anomalies found in 2013 General Elections. Under the proposal, the vote counting and results would be done at respective polling stations while the Form-14, containing result, would be transmitted to the Returning Officers (ROs) as well as the ECP through a mobile application to ensure prompt transmission of results.

In case victory margin is less than five per cent or 10,000 votes, the recounting would be mandatory on the spot. Moreover, a uniform system of printing of ballot papers would also be introduced for all constituencies.

Special measures would be taken to encourage enlistment of women voters in case there was a difference of more than 10 per cent in the number of male and female voters.

Under the reforms package, any citizen would be automatically registered as a voter once he or she was issued a Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) and no application would be needed for the purpose.

All the political parties would have to issue five per cent tickets to female candidates on general seats.

Disabled voters would be provided postal ballot facility while delimitation of constituencies would be carried out after every ten years.