The government looks to be planning an earlier election of the soon-to-be vacant seats in the Pakistan Senate. With as many as 52 senators stepping down on March 11, the elections have to be planned for, and it is welcoming that the ruling party is trying to keep the transition between the outgoing and incoming members as smooth and uninterrupted as possible.
The big question though, remains the government’s attempts to make the current electoral exercise open, instead of using the old secret ballot, prone to horse-trading and allegations of corruption. Since all major parties have cried foul on this process on more than one occasion, a dialogue over how best to make open-voting the norm in senate elections is one worth having.
However, with the political climate as tumultuous as it is, there looks to be no recourse to getting the opposition and the government to sit at the same table, even when they are principally aligned on an important issue.
The ruling party does have a strategy to use the Presidential Ordinance as a means to change legislation on secret ballots, however, a move like this will not go over well in the current political climate.
To mitigate this, the government has decided to go to the Supreme Court and seek its advice on the matter. This is the wisest course of action if the government is not seeking consultations with the opposition benches.
Attempting to change the process unilaterally will only unnecessarily politicise an issue that deserves the full attention of all political parties across the board. If an ordinance is used, the opposition will not accept another set of results and it will only put the government on the backfoot. This is the time to avoid such conflict. The Supreme Court can offer a solution which is acceptable to all stakeholders. The government must be patient; it can still move forward on its plan to make the senate elections transparent. But it must do so with others in tow.
https://nation.com.pk/17-Dec-2020/open-ballots
Open Ballots: edit in the Nation, Dec 17, 2020
The government looks to be planning an earlier election of the soon-to-be vacant seats in the Pakistan Senate. With as many as 52 senators stepping down on March 11, the elections have to be planned for, and it is welcoming that the ruling party is trying to keep the transition between the outgoing and incoming members as smooth and uninterrupted as possible.
The big question though, remains the government’s attempts to make the current electoral exercise open, instead of using the old secret ballot, prone to horse-trading and allegations of corruption. Since all major parties have cried foul on this process on more than one occasion, a dialogue over how best to make open-voting the norm in senate elections is one worth having.
However, with the political climate as tumultuous as it is, there looks to be no recourse to getting the opposition and the government to sit at the same table, even when they are principally aligned on an important issue.
The ruling party does have a strategy to use the Presidential Ordinance as a means to change legislation on secret ballots, however, a move like this will not go over well in the current political climate.
To mitigate this, the government has decided to go to the Supreme Court and seek its advice on the matter. This is the wisest course of action if the government is not seeking consultations with the opposition benches.
Attempting to change the process unilaterally will only unnecessarily politicise an issue that deserves the full attention of all political parties across the board. If an ordinance is used, the opposition will not accept another set of results and it will only put the government on the backfoot. This is the time to avoid such conflict. The Supreme Court can offer a solution which is acceptable to all stakeholders. The government must be patient; it can still move forward on its plan to make the senate elections transparent. But it must do so with others in tow.
https://nation.com.pk/17-Dec-2020/open-ballots
Published in Pak Media comment and Pakistan