The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) on Tuesday launched a campaign to solicit public support for the federal framework legislation in provincial laws to protect the electoral rights of voters and contesting candidates in the local government (LG) elections.
The campaign is aimed to encourage citizens, civil society groups and media to support framework legislation for maintaining uniformity in basic electoral principles in their respective local government laws. FAFEN also said that the LG elections are central to deepening democracy making them as much important as the general elections.
In the first phase of the campaign, FAFEN will encourage citizens to send letters to ECP, political parties and their parliamentary leaders in the national and provincial assemblies to endorse the FAFEN-proposed federal legislation. In addition to country-wise engagements with media and citizens, FAFEN will also utilise social media and its website (www.fafen.org) to mobilise citizens and candidates to raise demands for the protection of their electoral rights.
Last week, FAFEN proposed to hold LG elections in phases to ease administrative burden on the ECP. It also said that the ECP should be authorised by the federal framework legislation to conduct LG elections under the enacted legislation by provinces, so that the electoral rights of the voters and candidates could be protected.
FAFEN said that the constitution, under Article 140-A (2), holds the ECP responsible for local government election, while ECP being a federal body acts upon laws provided by the parliament. “In the absence of a clear legal guidance, the ECP is being required to function under laws devised by the provinces. Constitutionally, however, any ECP action may be subject to future legal challenges,” it concluded.
