Pakistan Peoples Party Paper
Steps To ensure Fair 2007 Elections
(updated December 2006)

1.  INTRODUCTION 
 
The military regime of General Pervaiz Musharraf cannot be expected to hold fair election given its track record during the Presidential Referendum, General Election of 2002 and Local Elections of 2005. Here are some steps which can ensure fair elections in 2007.
 
2.  ROLE OF INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES
 
Agencies has a major role in manipulating the election. The political wing of the ISI should be disbanded. MI, ISI, IB should be barred from meddling in elections and putting together political parties, making it a criminal offence by a civil court for any military official or intelligence official found so involved. All election monitoring centers should be disbanded. If they are not disbanded, the Election Commission should be empowered to visit all monitoring centres set up by military and intelligence agencies. These centres should be open to civil scrutiny through observers as well as have representatives of political parties.
 
3.    CANDIDATES QUALIFICATION CRITERIA
 
a. In the 2002 election candidates were required to be college graduates and certain madrassah certificates, (high school degrees) were declared to be equivalent of University degrees. This is a highly controversial and selective screening mechanism for the democratic process in a country where literacy rates are low.  It amounts to disenfranchising a large number of people from this right to contest general elections.  
 
b. The second most controversial rule devised for the 2002 election was barring candidates having held Prime Minister's office twice, ignoring the fact that no candidate since 1988 has been allowed to complete any full term as PM.
 
The only qualification for a candidate should be that he/she be a Pakistani and 25 years of age. [The Representation of People Act, 1976, must be amended accordingly]
 

c. The elections should be open to all parties and personalities including Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif. Attempt to stop them from participating amounts to subverting the will of the people. Abuse of the judicial process to harass and hamper the leadership of moderate parties is to support the religious parties and the ruling PML-Q.

4.     ELECTION OBSERVERS
 
Given the contentious nature of elections in Pakistan, a non-partisan monitoring body is needed to be put together from civil society to appoint observers in every polling station or as many as possible. Election Commission should permit the observers from sitting in polling booths.

 

a.         Postal Ballots (Government Employees, Overseas Pakistanis, polling staff in the elections and the prisoners etc).

b.         The monitoring by foreign observers as well as Party representatives of command and control centres and hub points of computerized vote count by the Election Commission /NADRA is important to prevent tampering by state officials with electoral lists and results. 

c.         Political parties should be allowed to monitor the election process through observers / Party representatives  who should be allowed to sit  in the control and command centers as well as any set up by the military or civil administration for monitoring of elections or law and order related to elections  and where the election computer hub stations are . Sufficient number of observers should be drawn through Asia Foundation and NGOs to observe polling stations. ASIA FOUNDATION which receives funds for monitoring of elections should cater for funding of domestic observers.

5.     TRANSPARENT BALLOT BOXES
 
Transparent Election Boxes are necessary to ensure they have not been pre-filled (although the danger of switching them during breaks for food or wash-room in the polling stations must also be examined).
 
6.     PROTECTION OF BALLOTS
 
Ballots are handed by the Election Commission to the Returning Officers (RO). The RO in turn gives them to the Presiding Officers under Police protection. Some ballots are siphoned in this process. Number of ballots to each presiding officer must be numbered, the polling list must mention the numbers of the serial. At the end of polling Presiding Officer must account to polling agents number of un-used and used serial numbers and give certificate to the same effect.
 
Prior to the vote, ballots are kept overnight with the ballot boxes at the residence of the Presiding Officers who take them to the polling station the following day. This presents another opportunity to siphon blank ballots. Usually the intelligence agencies or administration take the ballots to distribute to favoured candidates.
 
Secondly during the night under orders of the intelligence agencies or of the administration or political government, boxes are pre-filled by Presiding officer's who then switch them during the day with the boxes that were actually filled.
 
7.     CONSTITUTION OF ELECTION COMMISSION
 
a.  There are eight key people in the Election Commission who conduct elections. These include the five members of the Election Commission namely Chief Election Commissioner and four Provincial Election Commissioners, the Secretary, Additional Secretary and Joint Secretaries. They should be independent, neutral people preferably from Human Rights Commission of Pakistan or any other well respected NGO.
 
b.  As the Election Commission enforces its writ through the provincial administration, the Chief Secretary and Inspector General Police in each province must be appointed by and answerable to the Election Commission in the three months of the election schedule and conclusion of polls. 

c.  Presiding Officers should not be appointed in their home districts. 

d.  Identity theft be avoided by putting photograph of each Presiding Officer on webpage of Election Commission.
 

8.     INTERIM GOVERNMENT TO CONDUCT ROLLS
 
National Government of progressive Parties to conduct elections on the pattern of Bangladesh is necessary to prevent influencing of elections and their results through political influence, use of Public media and public funds.
 
9.    HIGH COURT CHIEF JUSTICES
 
Neutral Chief Justices of High Courts and neutral Registrars of High Courts are to be appointed for the election period. Election matters go first to the Election Commission and then to the High Courts where the Chief Justices and Registrars play a crucial roles. There is little use of an Independent Election Commission decision if it is to be stayed or over-turned at the High Court level where some members of the judiciary have been perceived to be partisan.
 
10.   NEUTRAL ELECTION TRIBUNALS
 
The judges chosen to serve on Election Tribunals must have a reputation for impartiality and must not have sat on high profile political cases.
 
11.    NEUTRAL ADMINISTRATION
 
a. A neutral provincial administration is necessary to prevent politically motivated officers from influencing elections. In particular, the provincial secretaries including Home Secretary, should not be former military or intelligence officials.

b. All District Nazims should be suspended for three months after the announcement of the election schedule to prevent them from using the administration to influence the election results.   

12.    INTELLIGENCE BUREAU
 
Head of IB should be a neutral and respected Police Officer and not a retired Military officer. The senior officials of IB, as well as provincial officials, must not be retired military officials. The political wing of ISI, MI, IB as well as other military intelligence should be stopped from holding meetings with political leaders and otherwise interfering in the electoral process.
 
13.    ELECTORAL LIST
 
The 2002 list should be used with new voters registered. The electoral list was not used in the Local Elections of 2005. Instead the NADRA list consisting of those to whom National Identity Cards have been issued was used which is extremely faulty as it does not contain the name of those large number of voters to whom identity card has not been issued.  Approximately 30 percent of voters are currently disenfranchised from the NADRA lists. . 
 
14.    POLLING STATION / PRECINCT ELECTORAL LIST
 
Accurate electoral rolls are critical to a free and fair election. For several general elections, the EC has not been able to revise and update electoral rolls, which disenfranchises whole swathes of voters for the exercise. It has also been a convenient method of eliminating opposition votes by simply removing voter's names. Two sets of lists are prepared. Candidates are given one voters list i.e., Precinct and Polling station-wise list, in order to dupe them into believing that all names are included on the voter list. Second lists are given to Presiding Officers which are entirely different and have 25% to 30% names missing and people are sent away on polling day, as they run here and there, looking for their names on corresponding lists. Ultimately they are unable to exercise their right to vote, as the candidates’ list has them registered at a particular polling station, but their names are missing from the Presiding officer’s list at the same polling station.
 
These missing votes are then added on to the establishment’s favourite candidate through ghost polling stations, hacking into the Election Commissions computer and other means.
 
The last date for revision of electoral rolls should be fixed at one month before the elections. Section 20 of the Electoral Rolls Act, 1974, be amended to provide that the ECP shall notify the publication and availability of the final/ revised Electoral Roll of the said constituency not later than the date of notification of the contesting candidates. There should be a penalty for not doing so. 
 
The computerization of electoral rolls should be conducted at the District level by the DROs and be made freely available.
 
The Election Commission should also make public the mode, procedure and law under which the Electoral Rolls are compiled. Electoral lists should be placed on an easily accessible website. Also, the electoral list of 2002 should be used with the addition of new voters since the NADRA registered list that were used in the Local Bodies elections were faulty and inaccurate.  
 
Voter registration forms must be freely available on the Election Commission list to facilitate voter registration.
 
Updated voters list must be maintained on the Election List computer so that voters can check electronically to see whether they are registered and at what number.
 
15.    ROLE OF JUDICIARY
 
The District and Session Judges/Additional District and Session Judges/Civil Judges should be put under the control of the Election Commission of Pakistan for election purposes and they should be empowered to entertain complaints and take immediate action against any one found violating the electoral process. Any official or person found involved may be proceeded against and the Election Commission should be authorized to take appropriate action after hearing the concerned parties. 
 
16.    GRADE OF PRESIDING OFFICER
 
Federal Government employees   belonging to Grade 17 and above should be appointed as Presiding Officers in the polling stations. They are under federal law. The under Grade 17 officials serve the provincial governments and, remaining under their influence, can be easily coerced at the provincial level. It is important to ensure that all presiding officers are Grade 17 or above.
 
17.    DELIMITATION OF CONSTITUENCIES
 
Constituencies should be compact and of a uniform voter-strength. Anomalies detected in the past elections, particularly those related to gerrymandering, must be duly rectified.
 
The practice of carving up districts in order to break established constituencies of political rivals must be stopped forthwith, and a Boundary Commission on the UK model be established to restore constituencies to non-ethnic and non-parochial criteria and on comparative population sizes. 

a. NEW DISTRICTS:   The government has created new districts in Sindh in order to suit its own coalition partners in the elections. This will adversely affect at least 3 National Assembly and 5 Provincial Assembly seats in lower Hyderabad/Badin region alone and many more in other parts of Sindh.  This is malafide and a pre-emption of the right of Election Commission to delineate constituencies, therefore delimitation of constituencies should not take place till the new census is held as required under the constitution. 
 
18.    PRE-POLL RIGGING
 
In the 2002 general election, state resources were deployed on an unprecedented scale to ensure the success of the military proxies. Governor House cars, offices and other effects of the government were openly applied to the campaign effort of one party. Government announced concessions and other development plans very close to the general election and by-election campaign, distorting completely the level playing-field expected from a free, fair election.
 
A strict ban on the use of state resources for election campaigning must be imposed; the CEC must take suo moto notice of abuses by Government Ministers or Parliamentarians who are violators who should be punished immediately. Elections where such obvious rigging has taken place be declared null and void and a re-poll ordered in all such constituencies.
 
19.    PUNISHMENTS FOR ELECTORAL MALPRACTICES
 
Although provisions in the law exist for punishment of corruption and malpractice by election officials, these remain unimplemented, with the result that impunity has become the norm for all such offenders.
 
The provisions for severe punishments for Returning Officers [Section 91 of the Peoples Representation Act 1976] who display partiality must be enforced. The provision should be extended to the District Returning Officer and a method prescribed for giving speedy effect to the same. The existing Section 91 be enhanced to include Presiding Officers, Asst Presiding Officers, District Returning Officers, Returning Officers, Asstt: Returning Officers. Disposal of appeals should not take more than three months, after which punitive action against the complainant if found guilty, will automatically take place.
 
20.    MULTIPLE IDENTIFICATION
 
The requirement of the National Identity Cards as the single source of identification has led to abuse of the process. Identity cards forged by impostors leave little option for the real voter to challenge the forgery. NICs can also be seized by powerful mafias and rivals, particularly when the income and power inequalities are accented in feudal and other constituencies.
 
Multiple Identification is necessary to prove identification of the voters. A photo identity should be allowed for identification of the voter as opposed to only the NIC.
 
Most voters in rural areas do not have National Identity Cards. Voters should be allowed to identity themselves through passport, driving license, arms license etc which are all issued by the Government and not only by the National Identity Card. Bogus cards are now provided to favoured candidates because voters either do not have an NIC or their NIC has been bought (buying an National Identity Card is like buying a vote) leading to corruption.
 
21. VOTER ENROLLMENT IN ELECTORAL LIST

The decision by the election commission to enroll only such members in the electoral list as have new computerized identity cards must be repealed. According to the NADRA, the registration body, more than twenty million voters do not have the new cards. The right to vote is a fundamental right and it is unconstitutional to disenfranchise those that have not yet acquired the new computerized cards. it may be recalled that during the tenure of Quaid-e-Awam, when identity cards were first introduced, those cards were given free of cost and mobile units were sent to villages and towns in far flung areas to register every citizen. Now the process is cumbersome and expensive making it difficult for citizens to obtain the computerized identity cards, in particular the voters in the rural areas are being deliberately disenfranchised. 
 
22. INDUCTION OF ARMY CAPTAINS

A report was received by the PPP that 150 army captains have been taken into the police service of Pakistan with a plan to rig the elections through identity theft. These persons will be deputed in place of deputy returning officers and given charge to rig the elections at the grass roots level by pretending to have the identity of DROs. The PPP calls for steps to stop rigging through identity theft.
 
23.  PLACING OF POLLING STATION
 
Polling stations are often moved or even simply removed by the authorities in order to deprive entire zones of the right of franchise, particularly in areas where the opposition vote bank is established and strong. Ghost polling stations are forbidden under law, and yet they appear at the last moment, with no one knowing whether they are real or virtual. It also happens that military forces or Rangers are present inside polling station in blatant disregard for the neutrality factor. The Placing of Polling Stations should be in the most populous area in a Government building as provided by law. Law already provides for it but it is systematically violated. Election Commission should be made responsible for violations and officials who violate it must be penalized through provision in law and mechanism for its implementation.
 
It should be possible to post applications for fresh voter registrations and deletion of wrong names on the EC website. The entire operation should be made transparent. The name of the polling station on which a voter has to vote should be given against his name on the website. No changes in polling stations can be made at least 45 days prior to elections. Any changes should be properly notified so that general public is fully aware of the change. Votes should be counted on polling stations and the counts should be put on notice boards outside the polling stations. Progressive results based on the counts received from polling stations should be announced on the media like the procedure employed in the 1970 elections.
 
24.  COUNT
 
First count is at the polling station. The second count and result announcement should be at the District Returning Officer’s office. Presently the establishment has a centralized count. In the gap between RO and Center the results are manipulated.
 
Vote count is presently done by the Presiding officer/polling station from where it is sent to District Returning Officer (DRO). The DRO compiles the polling station certified results in the presence of military intelligence and civil administration officers. They influence the compilation. The candidates are not allowed in during this process where the results are manipulated. The results are then taken to control and command centers manned by the military at Corp headquarters in the name of law and order to computerize data. This allows for further changing the results in multiple ways including hacking into Central Election Commission computer and changing results, double stamping and spoiling votes or simply declaring a loser as winner.
 
The winner then has to go to Tribunals Courts for relief. These rarely allow for recounts. To stop this, the system should revert to that from time of Independence of Pakistan in 1947 to 1988 General Elections (After that every election was rigged to a lesser or greater degree). Under this system, the first count is in the polling stations and the lists are immediately compiled before the DRO in the presence of candidates or their agents.
 
DRO must announce result on compiled list or recount of ballots in presence of candidates or their agents and international observers but no-one from the civil, military officialdom should be neither present nor anyone other than as above.
 
25.    CERTIFIED VOTE COUNT AND PENALTY
 
Presiding Officer must be bound to provide certified vote count to each polling agent and if any polling agent has a certificate which is not duly filled out, concerned Presiding Officer should be suspended from government service for at least one year as punishment for failing to do his duty.
 
Second and final count immediately thereafter with candidates or their representative present and no one else whether DC, SP, ISI, MI etc to prevent pressure on District Returning Officer. Result should be certified and announced immediately by Returning Officer who can then transmit a copy of the certified result to the Election Commission.
 

26.    GHOST POLLING STATIONS
 
These are polling stations which are announced at the last minute before the election. It is illegal to announce new polling stations or change polling stations but this happens with impunity. It is said that the hackers create “Khajji Ka Dera” (Date Farm) Polling Stations, as most parts of Pakistan have date trees.  These are created in the Election Commission computers in most constituencies to add votes for favoured candidates.
 
The official changing or announcing a new polling station in the final days before the election (when it is illegal) must be immediately punished through suspension from Government service for one year. Those refusing to rectify the matter when appealed to under the law must be similarly punished.
 
The tragedy in Pakistan is that many good laws exist. The problem is that those who are to implement the law, whether in the Judiciary, Police or Administration, rarely do so with few exceptions.
 
27.    CHANGE OF POLLING STATIONS
 
It may be noted that Election laws do not permit change of polling stations after announcement and review period of election schedule. However since 1990 elections, this has been another favourite method to deny victory to candidates dis-favoured by the establishment.

Election Commission computer must have date wise changes made  by the ECP in placing polling stations and nomination of Presiding Officers  and polling staff on its webpage.   
 
28.     PARALLEL VOTE COUNT
 
Parallel vote count by international observers, NDI and or NGOs is necessary to ensure that the mandate of the masses is not subverted. During the Aquino candidacy in the Philippines, NAMFREL was established to act as a parallel vote count.
 
29.   STAMPING OF BALLOTS BY POLICE
 
Special tribunals should be constituted in each constituency to hear complaints against Police, military or intelligence officials involved in taking over polling stations and stamping ballots to punish them immediately through suspension as well as blacklisting the ACR of the official if found guilty.
 
30.     TRANSPORT FOR PRESIDING OFFICER AND POLLING AGENTS
 
Transport should be provided to take the Presiding Officers as well as the polling agents of the winner and runner up from the polling station together to the office of Returning Officer where the results will be given to the RO. This will stop Presiding officers going to intelligence / administration safe houses to change the electoral results.

31.    KIDNAPPING
 
During the local elections of 2005, widespread kidnapping and interfering with the free movements of candidates, their proposers and their seconders took place. This was to prevent them from filing their nomination papers with a view to get officially sponsored candidates elected “unopposed”. Twenty eight percent of Interior Sindh candidates were declared elected “unopposed” in the local elections held in 2005. Election Commission was unable to provide appropriate relief.
 
32.  WRONGFUL CONFINEMENT
 
Polling agents, transporters, vote getters are arrested on frivolous charges. Some district level relief method is necessary to be established to examine cases of such a nature with a view to provide relief. The present method is to go to the judicial courts. However, obtaining a lawyer, preparing a brief, waiting for a date of hearing, for proceeding to conclude and judgment to arrive, even when relief is provided, causes much damage by interfering in the right to a free and open campaign. When multiple persons are arrested the campaign is badly affected. The General Elections in 2002 and Local Elections of 2005 demonstrated that courts are influenced by Chief Justices who, if partisan, can delay matters endlessly thereby denying relief. This is why neutral Chief Justices are needed.
 
To prevent Police carrying out illegal political orders a neutral interim government is necessary.
 

 

33.   RECOUNTS
 
According to reports, there were serious allegation of corruption involved in ordering or not ordering recounts in disputed elections. Rumours circulated that the officials of the Election Commission as well as the Returning Officer’s etc. were taking Rs. Two hundred and fifty thousand to order a recount in the local election for councilors. One presumes that the price in a general election would (by that calculation) be Rs. Ten million for a recount.
 
There should be a clear criteria for recounts without allowing for the discretion of the Secretary Election Commission or anyone else.
 
This is one more reason that the count should be conducted at the district level by the Returning Officer therefore reducing chances of disputing it.
 
34.   APPELLATE FORUMS AND TRIBUNALS
 
Although the constitution provides for election tribunals to decide petitions pertaining to election complaints with in six months, the record clearly demonstrates that these tribunals delay decisions indefinitely. Their efficacy becomes negligible and their intent questionable. Election cases originating from the opposition remain undecided for several years, which make judicial inaction a clear component of electoral reform. Imposing a penalty on those not deciding election cases within 6 months as mandated by law is one way to ensure implementation.
 
35.   CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS
 
Election Campaign: All parties should be given an equal campaign time and not be subject to arbitrary prohibitions on campaigning in specific areas which may be open to certain other parties. All contesting parties should be allotted equal time with the government in the state-controlled news bulletins as well as a restriction placed on official or commercially sponsored campaign commercials and advertising on television.
 
Election Staff: The number of trained election staff is often an impediment to the process of conducting and micro-managing an electoral exercise.
 
While the list of polling staff should continue to be drawn as per existing practice, [in accordance with the provision of sub-section 1-5 of Section 9 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1976] the number of trained polling staff needs to be increased in order to deal with a larger number of polling stations and voters.
 
Instruction Manual for the DROs, ROs, AROs: The manual for Returning Officers at every level is outdated. The manual should be revised to include all decisions taken for the particular election by incorporating all new decisions and amendments in the law.
 
Delay in Announcement of Results:  With each successive election after the 1970 poll, the Election Commission has been delaying the announcement of results. In the 2002 exercise, the commission announced the first results from the remotest areas of the country well after the close of polling, going suspiciously into the next day with 'revised' results coming out of the central headquarters.
 
First, the Presiding officer and polling agent of winning / losing candidate should be transported to RO office together, in order to ensure that the Presiding officer does not go to a safe house to change results. To avoid  ghost votes appearing from nowhere in a centralized process, the results should be immediately announced by the District Returning Officer or Returning Officer as was the practice in every election before 1988. These progressive results should continue being announced on television to avoid a centrally rigged or contested count. The process of centralization should be reversed.

Election results must be posted in real time on the EC website as well as announced on public media as they are received by Returning Officers.

36.  REPRESENTATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES

Political parties representatives should be part of the entire elections process including development of voters lists, computerization, production of ballots, distribution of ballots and all pre-elections, on election day and after election day including vote count and transportation of the ballots.