Pakistan Political Crisis | ECP Says General Elections Not Possible Within 3 Months, Cites Legal Challenges: Report

The ECP said that various legal hitches and procedural challenges had resulted in its inability to conduct general elections within three months.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during the 48th session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers, in Islamabad on March 22, 2022. | AFP

New Delhi: Amid the political tensions in Pakistan, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has said it is not possible to conduct general elections within three months, Pakistani news agency Dawn reported. The ECP said that various legal hitches and procedural challenges had resulted in its inability to conduct general elections within three months.

The preparations for the general elections would require about six months, a senior official told Dawn. He said the major challenges were the fresh delimitation of constituencies, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and bringing district- and constituency-wise electoral rolls in conformity. 

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a constituency in which the number of seats had been increased under the 26th Amendment of the constitution of Pakistan, which entered the fray on May 13, 2019. 

The 26th Amendment declares the following: "The seats of tribal districts in the National Assembly of Pakistan will be retained at 12 while their seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly have been increased to 24 from 16."

“Delimitation is a time-consuming exercise where the law provides for one month’s time just to invite objections,” Dawn quoted the senior official as saying. He added that in order to address the same, another month was required. 

The senior official said the completion of the exercise would require a minimum of three months.  After this, another gigantic task of updating voters’ lists will have to be performed. 

He said that other challenges include procurement of election material, arrangement for ballot papers and appointment and training of polling staff. Ballot papers with watermarks were to be used, under the law, the official said. However, ballot papers are not available in the country and would have to be imported. 

The official revealed that the ECP had proposed to amend the law to provide for ballot papers with ‘security features’, instead of ‘water mark’, Dawn reported.

It would also require some time to invite bids and scrutinise financial and technical quotations, the official said. Speaking about the election material, the official said that two million stamp pads would be required for about 100,000 polling stations, Dawn reported. 

“This is just one example. Other materials in huge quantity, including scissors and ball points, will also have to be procured,” the official said.

The official referred to some legal hitches, and stated that under Section 14 of the Elections Act, the ECP was to announce an election plan four months prior to the elections. 

The law requiring use of EVMs (electronic voting machines) and giving overseas Pakistanis voting rights also held the field and had to be repealed, the official said. 

The commission had already announced the schedule for local government (LG) elections in  Balochistan, setting May 29 as the polling day, according to the official. The process to hold the LG Polls was underway in Punjab, Sindh and Islamabad.

“We will have to drop the plan for LG polls, if general elections are to be conducted,”the official said. 

What Are The Legal And Operational Challenges?

The Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), which is a network of 35 domestic civil society organisations working together in Pakistan since 2006, expressed grave concern over the recent political developments and ensuing constitutional crisis. The Fafen also identified multiple constitutional, legal and operational challenges to the conduct of an early election.

“While the constitutionality of the measures leading to the dissolution of the National Assembly will be decided by the Supreme Court, Fafen hopes for a prompt decision by the apex court, which rightly took up the matter suo moto, as any delay will continue to accrue collateral issues arising out of the constitutional deadlock,” the Fafen said in a statement on Monday. 

“Public confusion and political divisions that have already arisen as a result can potentially translate into violent expression. Political parties have a great responsibility to manage their workers and make sure that political disagreements do not turn into violence, especially ahead of an early election,” the Fafen further said. 

An early election may not be a smooth process in view of several constitutional and legal complications, according to the Fafen.

The network of civil society organisations also said that the critical factor for the legitimacy of any election will be the completion of the Election Commission. The Fafen pointed out that the ECP members from Punjab and KP were yet to be appointed. 

According to the report, the constitutional procedure for appointment of the members under a caretaker set-up remains unclear under Article 213 (2B). The article requires the prime minister and the opposition leader to initiate the process in a specially formed committee comprising only senators.

The constitutional and legal status of the current delimitation of seats of the national and provincial assemblies is another concern. This is because it was carried out on the basis of provisional results of the 2017 census.

There is also confusion about the practicality and enforcement of the recent amendments to the Elections Act, 2017, regarding the use of EVMs and the facilitation of overseas Pakistanis to vote in their country of residence. These amendments were passed by a joint sitting of parliament without the support of opposition parties. 

According to the report, Fafen said that it had always urged the need for electoral reforms through political consensus. This is because majoritarian changes to the election law always led to challenges to the legitimacy of the election outcome and political stability.

One of the major issues the ECP had started to successfully address through targeted campaigns is the under-registration of women on the electoral rolls.

According to the report, the ECP has been able to arrest the rising gender gap on the electoral rolls. However, there still are 11.37 million women who remain unregistered as voters.

The electoral rolls will have to be frozen 30 days before the announcement of the election programme as per Section 39 of the Elections Act, in case the elections are called within three months. This will render millions of women voters disenfranchised, the report stated. 

The operational and logistical preparation by the ECP is another challenge to early elections. The preparation involves recruitment and training of around one million polling staff, and printing, publishing and transportation of election materials as well as selection of locations for more than 10,000 polling stations, according to the report. 

Due to the addition of more than 15 million voters on the electoral rolls since the 2018 general elections, more than 10,000 polling stations are to be established.