A huge task
It is for the first time in the country’s history that elections are to be held under a genuinely independent Election Commission and a consensus caretaker setup. This arouses hopes of an election free from military interference and wherein money and muscle power are not allowed affect the results. With each one of the three major political parties claiming the support of the majority of voters, any perception that the elections were stolen could prove to be catastrophic. A flawed election would reduce voter confidence in the ballot box and encourage violence as an option for political change. This would not only help the extremist groups but also provide the offstage players an opportunity to weaken – if not oust – the civilian leadership. There is already a talk about an Orange Revolution and a Pakistani version of the Tahrir Square despite the two holding little relevance for a country with an independent judiciary, a free media and absence of political repression. The election will test the promise made by Fakhruddin G Ibrahim while taking oath on Monday to hold free, fair, transparent and impartial elections “so that no one should ever be able to raise finger on its impartiality”.
The CEC is a man of impeccable integrity and a visionary. While these qualities are highly valuable, they have to be accompanied by fool proof arrangements to make the elections a milestone. Despite his vast experience, the aging CEC will be able to perform his duties best by devising an efficient system for holding the elections. A code of conduct binding on all contestants will have to devised and publicised at the earliest. Thankfully, the printing of electoral rolls for all provinces, except Punjab, has been completed while work on some districts of Punjab, according to Justice Shakirullah Jan, is likely to be finished in days.
The CEC should invite suggestions from all political parties and civil society organisations for holding fair elections. The Pakistan chapter of Transparency International has already sent a number of suggestions which need to be analysed. Some of these like calling on the military to supervise the elections both inside and outside the poling stations and introduction of EVM’s are likely to raise eyebrows. Suggestions like posting on the EC website the declaration of assets by all candidates, providing electoral rolls with photographs of voters to polling agents and installation of web cameras in all 68,000 polling booths throughout the 272 constituencies need serious consideration.
