KEY NOTE ADDRESS
BY
JUSTICE ® HAMID ALI MIRZA
HON’BLE CHIEF ELECTION
COMMISSIONER OF PAKISTAN
TO THE INAUGURAL SESSION OF
THE SAARC EMBs CONFERENCE
HELD ON 8-9 SEPTEMBER, 2011
AT SERENA HOTEL,
ISLAMABAD
Excellencies
Dignitaries
My fellow
Commissioners
Ladies and
Gentlemen;
It is my privilege and pleasure to heartily welcome you all
to this very important Conference of the heads of Election Management Bodies of
this region. This is a continuation of similar Conference held last year in Dhaka. I am indebted to all my learned counterparts from
SAARC countries, who inspite of their important official engagements back home,
came to Islamabad and made this event to happen. This is a unique platform,
which provides an opportunity to the Chief Election Managers of the countries
of this region to get together to exchange views and benefit from each others’
electoral experiences.
2. The year 2011 seems to be of great significance as it afforded a
number of opportunities to many of us to get together with relatively short
intervals. The first opportunity was the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations of
Election Commission of India held in January this year when I visited India. I was
also able to attend meeting on contemporary electoral issues arranged by my
learned colleague Dr. Anil Seal at Hyderabad. Lately, we had yet another opportunity to
meet each other at Cambridge,
U.K. in July
last while attending the Malaysian Commonwealth Conference. I once again extend my warmest greetings to each one of my
colleagues and other dignitaries present here.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
3. People living in this part of the world have
many commonalities to share in the shape of civilizations, history and cultural
values. We have inherited almost
identical set of political values and practices. Democracy despite many obstacles and
shortcomings, is and will remain ultimate solution for political and
socio-economic issues. We have seen that in our countries in spite of numerous
hardships, the democracy has eventually emerged as victorious and that is
because the electoral democracy is deeply rooted in the psyche of our people.
The political parties are electoral entities and the people tend to find
election related activities of political parties meaningful and comprehensible.
To my mind, for our nations and for that matter any other
civilized nation around the globe, the only panacea
in the political context is the constitutionally-limited dispensation to
govern the country and that the democratic institutions, as conceived by the
Constitution, would come into being only through free, fair and transparent
elections.
Distinguished Guests!
4. Election Management Bodies today have to face
many challenges, both external as well as internal. Increase in the use of
modern technologies in electoral processes have made many procedures fast and
secure, it has also caused many eyebrows to be raised by electoral
stake-holders. Key consideration should, therefore, be transparency and
fairness and not only ease of an electoral process. Increase in the use of
money in elections can play havoc to even the most efficient electoral system.
The capacity of an election management body to deliver effectively and
efficiently plays key role in ultimate success of electoral process. Therefore,
EMBs are required to be organized and structured in a way that enables them to
meet all these and many other challenges.
Since the start of elections in Pakistan in the early fifties up to
2008 elections, 11-elections to the National Assembly and 45-elections to the provincial
assemblies have been conducted. Out of 11-National Assembly elections, four
elections held in 1962, 1970, 1985 and 2002 were conducted under direct
military rule, and one election of 1965 under indirect military rule. Out of
the remaining six, two elections of 1988 and 1990 were held by a military
supported civilian President and four elections of 1977, 1993, 1997, and 2008
were conducted by civilian governments.
5. When we talk about ‘electoral democracy’ the issue of electoral
reform becomes very much relevant. In Pakistan, this issue is as old as
the country itself. Various informal groups comprising intelligentsia, party
cadres, journalists, academicians and social reformists and even Election
Commission itself have been working on the issue of electoral reforms in order
to push for what they perceived to be a model for establishing real democracy
in Pakistan.
Such efforts though sometimes culminated in the production of certain
publications on electoral issues but no major breakthrough could be made
setting a road-map for complete overhaul of the electoral processes in the
country. This led us to work on the idea of developing a comprehensive strategy
that could guide the Election Commission of Pakistan to improve and reform its
operational capabilities in a systematic and well organized manner.
Accordingly, in late 2009, with the technical assistance of International
Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) we were able to materialize the idea of
formulating the first ever Strategic Plan (2010-2014) in over 50 years of the
ECP’s history. I will read a separate Paper on ‘Strategic Planning for Election
Management Bodies: A Case Study of Election Commission of Pakistan’ during the
academic session of the Conference.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
6. One most important goal in our strategy to
improve the electoral processes in Pakistan is the computerization of
electoral rolls. We have already launched an ambitious plan of verifying,
augmenting and correcting the existing electoral rolls in collaboration with
National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). During our initial
deliberations for the development of an error-free and credible computerized
electoral roll, it was suggested that the number of National Identity Card
(NIC) issued by National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) should be
used as ‘unique identifier’ for building a Computerized Electoral Rolls System
(CERS). The political parties, civil society and the media also supported the
idea of developing computerized electoral roll in collaboration with NADRA
using their citizens’ database. This led to the enactment of an amendment in
the relevant law declaring NIC issued by NADRA a mandatory condition for
registration as voter. Accordingly, we entered into an agreement with NADRA
pursuant to which, the NADRA has produced Draft Electoral Roll containing about
81 million voters and delivered it to our district offices for its field
verification through door to door visits. The verification process has already
started from 22nd August, 2011 and will continue till 30th
of September, 2011. Final computerized electoral rolls are likely to be
published, by April, 2012. The most prominent feature of this electoral roll is
that it will have photograph of voters. We are also working on the development
of an effective and transparent mechanism for constant updation of electoral
rolls.
7. I would
also like to make a brief reference to the issue of scandalous influence and
use of money in elections. I had also
talked about this issue in our meeting at Cambridge
in July last. But this is an issue, which like many others, should be a major
cause of concern for all election management bodies of this region. The role of
money in politics undeniably influences the quality of democracy and governance.
Only through greater transparency will one fully monitor the extent and nature
of this influence. It is said that democracy needs to control money or money
will control democracy. I had mentioned about it that in Pakistan we are
initially working on the improvement of existing law relating to political
finance, such as, reviewing the provisions on annual statements of accounts of
political parties, the limits on election expenses and filing of returns
thereof by candidates and the statements of assets and liabilities of the
candidates. Such review will include the development of an effective mechanism
for scrutiny of such statements/returns of election expenses. We have moved
further in that direction. For the purpose of initiating work in this respect,
we are going to create a specialized Political Finance Wing in the ECP which
will be appropriately staffed. Besides, we also plan to have consultative
meetings with the political parties and the candidates so as to take them on
board on the issue of political finance so that a legislative proposal for
change in existing laws does find requisite support, when an appropriate Bill
for amendment in law is moved in the Parliament for necessary legislation.
8. There is little conflict
of opinion about the fact that training is an essential component of electoral
processes. We are running Federal
Election Academy
in the ECP with the financial and technical support of IFES over the last so
many years. We are taking concrete steps to further strengthen the Academy with
a view to make it a dynamic electoral training institute capable of catering to
the needs of not only all national electoral stake holders but also providing
training facilities of election managers of all SAARC countries. I consider
development of human resources as the best investment an EMB can make for
improving its functional capacity.
9. One of the
objectives of our Strategy to improve the Election Operations is to introduce
the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in Pakistan. In this regard, we have
recently completed a feasibility study about the use of EVM and its final
report has been published and placed on our official website. In the light of
this Report, specifications were developed and conveyed to local and
international manufacturers of EVMs asking them to demonstrate prototypes of
their products. In response, a number of national and international vendors
presented the prototypes before the EVM Committee constituted for this purpose.
On the basis of feedback received and analysis done by the Committee, the
specifications are now being finalized, which will be shared with the vendors
for preparation of their final product. I have also constituted a
sub-committee, which will work on the conduct of pilot exercise before its
large scale use in a general election. The EVM Committee is also finalizing a
legislative proposal for amendment in the relevant law for use of EVM for
voting and counting purposes in place of ballot boxes. In order to take the
stakeholders on board, we also had consultative meetings with the
representatives of the political parties representing in the Parliament and
civil society organizations who supported the idea of using the EVMs in the
country.
10. An
important item, proposed to be discussed in this Conference, is the revised
Draft Charter for the establishment of a SAARC Forum of EMBs. In our previous
meeting at Dhaka, the idea floated by my
brother Shamsul Huda was appreciated by the participants and it was agreed in
principle to take all necessary steps towards establishing such a forum.
Accordingly, the draft Charter was sent to the heads of the EMBs for further
processing with their relevant authorities. The ECP took up the matter with the
concerned government authorities and though our initiative of holding the
Conference of EMBs of the region was supported but they conveyed their
inability to approve the establishment of a permanent SAARC Forum for the
reason that a lengthy procedure is involved for the establishment of any new
regional body within SAARC. Further, Mr. Shamsul Huda forwarded the comments on
the Draft Charter by the Election Commissions of India, Bangladesh and Nepal. In the light of these
comments and the views of Pakistani concerned authorities on the issue, we have
revised the draft Charter and copies of the same have already been circulated
to all EMBs’ representatives attending the meeting for their perusal. It is proposed to be discussed as per
Conference Schedule. In order to move ahead in this direction, I propose as
under:
·
As a first step,
we may discuss and decide in principle as to the establishment of proposed
SAARC Forum of EMBs in the light of feedback so far received and if the
decision is in the affirmative, we may pass a Resolution in this behalf;
·
If a Resolution,
as proposed, is passed, the next step may be the circulation of a revised Draft
Charter among all heads of EMBs by ECP asking them to convey their comments on
the Revised Draft Charter as well as the views of the concerned government
authorities on it.
·
The Revised Draft
Charter, prepared in the light of the comments of all member-States and the
views of their concerned government authorities, may further be discussed in
the next Meeting of EMBs, before it is formally submitted to the Secretary
General of SAARC for further processing in accordance with procedure laid down
for the establishment of a permanent SAARC Forum through the good offices of
Bangladesh Election Commission;
·
In the meanwhile,
we may continue having informal meetings of heads of EMBs, if agreed.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
11. Conduct of an election may not be a
difficult task but holding a transparent and credible election certainly is.
Seeing our specialized field from this angle, we are in the same boat, which
floats on the troubled waters all the times and we have to steer clear of all
these hardships and always strive to keep our integrity and the integrity of
the electoral processes intact. Of course, the credibility of an EMB to hold
free, fair and transparent election is more dependent on general perception of
the stakeholders than reality, therefore, it may be achieved easily but it is
very difficult to maintain it and that is the area where we need to focus our
attention. To achieve this target, we need to sit together and exchange views
and experiences and for this purpose, the proposed forum may help produce the
desired results.
12.
I look forward to making such Conferences a regular feature through
establishment of a permanent Forum, as proposed and taking all necessary steps
to get it materialized. I wish you all a very pleasant stay in Islamabad and hope that your time in the
Conference will be used in the best interest of our EMBs and for ultimate
political and democratic development of people of this region.
Thank you very much.
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