Press "Enter" to skip to content

Electoral reforms: Editorial in Pakistan Today, Nov 19, 2020


Prime Minister Imran Khan wants to bring about electoral reforms so that elections of the Senate are not by secret ballot, but by show of hands, so as to obviate all allegations of MPAs, who are the voters in this case, selling their votes. He himself mentioned, in his televised address on Tuesday, that this would require opposition cooperation to amend the Constitution. As the allegation is mostly aimed at the KP Assembly, where his PTI has an overwhelming preponderance of MPAs (95 of 136), he wants the opposition, hounded as it is, with the Leader under arrest, to help the PTI amend the Constitution to help it in what is essentially a matter of internal party discipline. Another major problem is that the Constitution lays down that all elections shall be by secret ballot. Not only is it problematic to sacrifice this principle, but it is difficult to see the principle of the single transferable vote maintained. He has got perhaps too little time to build bridges with the Opposition to achieve this. However, he has put himself in the position of having tried before the election, and blaming its lack of cooperation for any betrayal by his party’s MPAs.

His proposal for electronic voting is, strictly speaking, a decision for the Election Commission, which would like to introduce e-voting, but lacks the money, which goes into the billions of rupees. As PM, he should be able to make the money available. Without electronic voting, overseas Pakistanis cannot be given the vote. There is also the issue of registering them as voters. After the electronic failure in updating results last election, electronic voting will probably not be trusted anyway. A related issue he did not touch on, is the approval that must be given to the 2017 census. Though the current delimitations are on its basis, it was because of a one-election waiver granted in a constitutional amendment.

Rather than wait until absolutely the last moment, or for judicial intervention, Mr Khan should conduct matters sagaciously. That demands not only seeing the problems that will arise, but building alliances with those whose cooperation is essential to a solution. The 2014 sit-in was very taxing, and Mr Khan should not forget that its reason was supposed to be electoral reform. It is worth noting that the speech did not address the real reason for the lack of credibility of our elections, allegations that results are tailored to suit the establishment. https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/11/18/electoral-reforms-5/