ISLAMABAD: The Democracy Reporting International (DRI) on Thursday said non-partisan observation of elections is important in supporting credible elections and improving electoral processes.
They said that non-partisan efforts were important in detecting and deterring fraud and other irregularities as well as promoting public confidence in elections and mitigating election- related violence.
The DRI was briefing the audience at their paper launch, held in collaboration with the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) at the National Press Club. Aurat Foundation’s Farkhanda Aurangzeb and HRCP’s Nasreen Azhar also spoke on the occasion.
The organisation added that more than 40,000 citizen observers were engaged in observer groups during the 2013 general elections. They also noted that citizen observation in particular builds civil society’s capacity to participate in political processes, fosters government accountability and helps in promoting reform between elections.
The paper highlighted that Pakistan’s legal framework for elections does not elaborate on the rights and responsibilities of election observers. Therefore, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is left with total administrative discretion to decide whether or not to allow citizen observers. The paper further notes that the ECP recently used its discretion to initiate the development of an administrative framework for the accreditation of domestic observers, which was formulated through consultative engagement with citizen observer groups. Nonetheless, the accreditation of citizen observers remains subject to ad-hoc arrangements.
DRI country representative, Hassan Nasir Mirbahar, said it is imperative that parliament codifies the rights of the citizen election observers. He added that a lack of legal protection and provisions for effective and non-partisan scrutiny of elections is a fundamental flaw in the election process. Hassan said that despite the importance of citizen observation, the issue had not been discussed at the federal level.
FAFEN representative Rashid Chaudhry emphasised the importance of legal coverage to domestic observation and the streamlining of scrutiny. He also stressed the need for the accreditation of observer groups and an ECP-introduced system, which asks for undertakings in order to ensure the observers are non-partisans.
DRI’s analysis highlighted that effective election observation and assessments rely on timely and accurate information. In practice, the provision on publishing information related to elections remains weak. This situation impedes the ability of election observers to assess the quality of election processes and check the veracity of the data on elections. It also emphasised that transparency is crucial for building confidence of other stakeholders, such as political parties, candidates and voters, in the electoral processes.
The paper urged parliament to strengthen the legal framework for observation by amending laws to establish and protect the rights of observers, require proactive transparency for state bodies including the ECP and reduce the power of state bodies to decline the disclosing of information.
The DRI also recommended that the ECP consider improving administrative processes for access to observers by developing administrative procedures and guidelines to ensure they are permitted to observe all stages of an election. It also recommended measures for improving transparency and quality of electoral information by establishing processes for the centralised collection and public release of results and reconciliation data.
Civil society organisations noted that the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms has yet to yield results on effective reforms though they have been deliberating on the issue for the last two years. They emphasised on the need for reforms to be enacted now as the ECP, political parties, aspiring candidates and civil society will require time to understand and implement the new electoral reforms.
