Of the myriad ill afflicting our election culture and the electoral process the three most intimidating have been manipulated constituencies, bogus voters' lists and compromised polling stations. The surefooted decisions taken now have set the election clock ticking and countdown has begun, as rightly claimed by the ECP Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan. The Commission has lobbed the ball into court of political parties and other aspirants to gird up their loins. There is no going back now, that was not so much believable till very recently.
Given the gross distortions that have crept into our electoral system over time are too obvious to be overlooked. For instance, voters' lists are notoriously rigged with huge bogus entries and blatant miss outs. These distortions are more prevalent in place, like Karachi, where populations increase tremendously, requiring continuous updating and occasional re-verification of electoral rolls. The challenge in the mega city is to find truth in assertions that out of some 8.6 million eligible voters about 3 million are not registered at their permanent addresses outside Karachi. And they have allegedly been dropped from the Karachi lists without their consent. Under an order of the Supreme Court, CEC is to rectify this distortion, if needed by deploying troops. Accordingly, the ECP has decided to ask the Ministry of Defence to provide escort-coverage for door-to-door re-verification of enlisted voters. Since the city's principal political stakeholder, MQM, was not in favour of door-to-door re-verification by the troops while other parties including PTI, ANP and Jamaat-i-Islami were for it, a perceptional mismatch tends to obtain. Now that the ECP has decided that while troops would provide security coverage the enumeration would be done by the non-military personnel it is hoped the concerned stakeholders would extend co-operation to the Commission to finish this work well ahead of the D-day.
Delimitation of constituencies in Karachi, however, is a critical issue as main political stakeholders nurture highly conflicting positions. That the size of constituencies and the ethnic mix in there undergone significant changes, particularly when number of seats were drastically increased during the military government of General Musharraf, there is a genuine reason to suspect that some kind of gerrymandering was carried out to the advantage of the government party and its allies. But the issue of delimitation is amenable to an amicable solution, as the ECP Sindh is expected to work it out in the light of proposals and reservations it has received from the parties. Equally crucial is the need to obtain peaceful polling because we have the notorious tradition of powerful groups taking over polling stations by use of force.
The Commission's decision to deploy army personnel inside and outside the polling stations not only in Karachi but also in Fata, parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and the stations declared sensitive in Punjab will hopefully make polling exercise peaceful and transparent. But that said, the ECP's job to hold 'fair, free and transparent' election is not over yet. It must bind the political parties to strictly follow the adopted Code of Electoral Conduct as well as leave no stone unturned to ensure that maximum registered voters cast their vote.
How to curb the anachronistic bane of denying women their right of vote by the contending parties' unholy trade-offs it remains a challenge. This curse should be checked by criminalizing such trade-offs while ECP should be adequately empowered to disqualify winners from the constituencies where women fail to vote. Of course, the parties would still be asking for more, and that should be done if possible within permissible legal limits. But the election must take place; there is just no escape from it. This upcoming national effort has in-built make-or-break potentiality. Its outcome must reflect the will of the nation as correctly as humanly possible. This election euphoria must not lead to any complacency.