How party tickets are awarded has been the subject of discussion in this space. Reader Aqil Sajjad together with a member of our team have worked on some suggestions on how to improve the process of awarding party tickets. Your feedback is needed so then a final recommendation to the party leaders on all of our behalf can be put forth. Please find below the suggestions . The whole article penned by Aqil Sajjad can be read here.
The Party’s District Election Commission should conduct elections for party tickets and the following conditions should be put in place to make them neutral and credible:
* To avoid conflict of interest, the election commission for a district should comprise members who are not from the same district or a neighboring one. If the party has branches in more than one province, then the members of the district election commissions should be from a different province to further minimize the possibility of conflict of interest.
* Members of a district election commission should enjoy a vote of confidence from the majority of all the party members in the district. This will make it further difficult for rivals to be appointed on election commissions to undermine anyone.
Moreover, members of any of the election commissions should a)not have defaulted on any loans b) not be under trial for any crime c) not have been found guilty of corruption or any other crime by a court of law and d) have been in the party for at least five years or the entire life of the party from its inception (whichever period is shorter) before being appointed to the election commission.
The eligibility requirements for party ticket candidates should be as follows:
* The candidate should have become a member of the party at least one year before the final date for filing an application for party tickets. This will make it difficult for ‘lotas‘ to switch parties easily.
* The candidate should not simultaneously be a member of any other political party at the time of his/her application for party ticket.
* The candidate should not be a loan defaulter or convicted by any court in any corruption case.
* To avoid conflict of interest, the candidate should not be an immediate relative of any member of the party’s election commission.
The process for the elections for party tickets should be as follows:
* All candidates should be required to submit their papers at least one month before the election for the party ticket.
* The submitted papers should include the individual manifestos of the candidates in Urdu, English and relevant regional languages.
* The list of all candidates along with their photographs and manifestos should be published by the party in a newsletter sent to all its members in the constituency. The photographs are being suggested mainly for the benefit of party members who are not literate.
* The newsletter should also include the names and photographs of applicants found ineligible on account of failing the criterion given above along with the specific reasons for rejection of their papers. This will make it harder for genuine candidates to be disqualified on frivolous grounds.
* In order to make the process transparent to the general public, the list of candidates and their manifestos for all constituencies should also be made available on the party’s website. The website should also include the names of ineligible applicants along with the specific reasons for their ineligibility.
* These lists and manifestos for all constituencies should also be available to any interested citizen anywhere in the country in print in return for a nominal fee. The party should be required to deliver the requested documents within 15 days of the request.
* The party’s local chapter should hold debates between the candidates in the presence of party members belonging to the constituency before awarding of the ticket. These debates should also be open to the media.
* The debates should be recorded and the recordings and transcripts should be made available on the internet through the party’s website. Any citizen anywhere in the country should also be able to obtain a copy of any such debate on cassette or CD and the transcripts in print from a party office for a nominal fee. The party should be required to deliver the requested items within 15 days of the request.
* All candidates should be required to present themselves in at least three debates.
* The election for the party ticket should be considered null and void if the turn out of party members is less than 50% within the constituency.
* There should be a run off election between the top two candidates if no one is able to obtain more than 50% of the votes cast.
* The entire polling process within the party should be open to the election commission of Pakistan, media and other independent observers to ensure transparency.
* There should be Elections held within the Party Members first to decide, who should get the Party Ticket. I remember Z A Bhutto days a Hoodlum with vast Criminal Record was granted a Provincial Assembly Ticket because Tariq Aziz hadn’t investigated his background at all.
* Nawaz Sharif had sold Tickets for Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 5 lacs in the last election, when he was not in exile.
* All Political Parties collect certain amount of money from Candidates in the name of Party Funds Account except MQM but who has ever dared to audit such accounts?
* Election Commission should be asked to audit such accounts. Why Candidates have to declare their Assets and not their Political Party?
* Supreme Court should make sure that ISI doesn’t interfere in elections in any which way because it used to even finance some Political Parties so they could defeat, whichever Political Party ISI didn’t like.
Your suggestions are highly reasonable and appropriate. It is a high time that we change the manner in which politics are practiced in Pakistan.
I would like to add a few suggestions too.
1. Anyone who runs for an election independently or on a party ticket should disclose their financial history of last 10 years on the election commission’s website.
2. Every political party should be obligated to publicly disclose on the election commission’s website every source of income/funding, and where and how every penny is spent by the party.
3. Anyone who can get (let’s say) 6,000-10,000 signatures of eligible voters from their precinct should be able to get their name on the ballot and they could only spend (let’s say) Rs. 100,000 from the government’s funds for their election campaign. All other sorts of funding/spending should be banned.
First of all, all political parties should democatrize themselves. Party Leadership should be elected by rank and file of the party. All members who wants party ticket should be voted by the constituents who belongs
to that party. Just like primaries in America.
Election should be null and void If less than 50% voters vote in the election. If all the candidates get less than 50% votes a runoff should
be held for the two top candidates. All elections must take in accordance with the law and under the supervision election commission.
Good luck and Pakistan Zindabad!!!!!!!!
All candidates must meet legal requirements of candidacy
I agree with your suggestions.
Agreed! Lets do our bit for this country.
I agree with your suggestions. Unless there is a system within parties, we will keep on seeing the same faces again and again.
I endorse these suggestions!
Could not agree more!!!!!!!!!!
I appreciate your valuable campaign, and agree with your suggestions.
good input, i full endorse these suggestions………but i feel once people power comes it will take few elections and some years before correct and the right persons are awarded tickets. Democracy is name of trial and error. The more we participate the more we tend to correct our election procedures.
I concur.
First and foremost the media should publish a chart listing the salient features of a manifesto and show what each party’s position is. I bet 99% of the voters don’t know what the manifesto’s of the various parties are.
Since getting elected is such an expensive proposition that an average Pakistani cannot dream of standing in an election. I suspect more than 80% of the people elected are the rich and powerful families or biradaris. How can these 20% be looking out for the 80% when almost everything these 80% want is not in the interest of the 20%. Can these 20% vote for land reform? NO. It’s like having 3 wolves and a lamb vote what to have for dinner. Unfortunately the wolves represent 20% of the population and the lamb represents the lamb.
The parties where a mere mortal can hope to get elected are probably either MQM or MMA but here again like in MQM if you don’t toe Bhai Altaf’s whim’s – not party policy/manifesto but Bhai Altaf’s line, you get removed. It’s almost like you have Bhai Altaf in every MQM seat. In the other mainstream parties like PML / PPP you may not agree with the party leader and cross over to the other party but with MQM your only option is to leave your seat or be removed without a whimper.
There is too much to be done before we can get any semblance of true democracy.
What is really needed is good governance. I think it does not matter who provides it – a military dictator, a technocrat, or a democratically elected individual. The institutions have to work. A country will survive bad politics but never bad administration. Look at Italy it continues function in spite of numerous changes in government.
Yes, the reform has to start with the political parties.
good suggestions, totally agree..but to whom these suggestion are put forth? and do they care? the heads of political parties want to maintain status quo and other leaders don’t dare to object..recent example is Aitizaz Ahsan where he can’t even say few words against the deal, if this the level of the man of principles what you can expect from others.
I agree.
Very reasonable suggestions Aqil, need to be propagated. It could be great if our media anchors could take them up. Our political parties need to get democratic themselves before talking of the necessity of democracy for the country. Another step in this regard can be to make the election of party leaders democratic. The drama of choosing lifetime chairpersons should end now.
The toothless body of Election Comission should be made independent and given powers to oversee the transparent functioning of our political parties, and any party in violation of its rules must be penalized.
Aqil Bhai,
I agree with all of the above and hope we can make a difference.
Feimanallah
Wasim
Very good suggestions…..maybe the first one requiring a one year affiliation should be reconsidered under the present circumstances as it would also hinder the new faces entering politics!
Its a wonderful suggestion that we should have democracy in the country but also within political parties. Democracy has two aspects. One, getting elected to the office by democratic means, i.e. by free and fair elections. Two, governing the country democratically, i.e. with checks and balances where the parliament, judiciary and media keeps a check on the use and abuse of authority by the executive.
Our elected despots once they get elected to the office try to concentrate all power in their hands and they try to have a carte blanche for the entire term of their office. Some elected despots like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after completing the term of their office try to rig the next election even when they know that they are going to win it easily probably because there is no limit to greed or because they somehow feel insecure.
When it comes to voting and elections people of Pakistan don’t have much choice. All they can do is choose the lesser evil. It is a sad state of affairs. Politics in Pakistan has become a monopoly of wealthy feudals and industrialists. The character and nature of society is determined by its middle class and not by the filthy rich. There are good people among rich too but generally they are obsessed with power for the sake of power and they don’t have a kind of moral values and a spirit of altruism that we associate with the middle class.
Our politicians don’t take politics and power as means to achieve some desirable goals like socioeconomic development and nation-building. They take politics as a career. People like Benazir’s husband Asif Ali Zardari extort 10% on every deal and there is no accountability and transparency. Our politics is also following the line of India’s dynastic politics where Nehru Gandhi, Indra Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and now Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, the whole family is like a royal family of India.
We must hold intra-party elections within our political parties. Not the kind of drawing room elections where party leaders give away party tickets to the candidates of their choosing but proper elections where the entire membership of a political party has a say in awarding party tickets. Secondly the funding of political parties should also be made more transparent and accountable. Instead of throwing all weight on the candidate the party should collect fee from the members which should be used for carrying out the election campaign. This way we can have more candidates from the middle class. Government should also fund political parties who manage to get a certain minimum number of votes in an election. And the political parties should also carry out fund raising campaigns before the elections.
I agree
I agree —let’s move forward Pakistan’s political system!
I agree
Although I am a Pakistani American, yet it is worth the effort to say that whatever people do, they must not elect those who have had at least two chances to show their worth. We are living in turbulent times, and those who have at least a college degree should be elected, but those who understand the West ought to be preferred in dealing with Foreign Policy matters. We must not sell ourselves or Pakistan just to please foreign elements. Pakistan MUST develop self-reliance through SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY to wean herself from the Milk called Foreign AID. Very few people know that there is no free lunch in the world, and those who give us such Funds have lots of strings attached with it. [Reference: John Perkins, "Confessions of An Economic Hit Man." Penguin Group, NY 2004]
Also, in order to lessenm tensions, we must remember the famous rule: “Respect Others so that we may be respected by Others.” Throwing stones and shouting empty slogans will not make us move in the traffic Jam of this un-just world.
Bashir A. Syed
The implementation of these suggestions is long overdue. It is high time for the civil society to raise its voice for putting an end to the monarchical and dynastical structures of our political parties. Any movement for democracy cannot be meaningful until its leaders start practicing democracy and financial integrity in their own parties first.
I believe this is a valuable campaign, that is much needed! Thanks!
100% agree with you.
I agree
I completely agree and fully support this campaign.
this is a great initiative – I endorse it.
However, there is a greater need to mobilise the party cadres at the local level to pressurise their leadership at the provincial and national levels to institute such mechanisms. A suggestion: why not select a couple of districts and team up with local civil society to achieve this??
Good initiative. I hope that at least some of the ideas here will be implemented this year.
Once and for all we should have elections that are free and fare for all the parties and for the people of Pakistan.
Yes you are right
supported
I concur
I AGREE!!!! Lets make Pakistan a clean place to live, free from the clutches of people like Musharraf.
I agree
I agree – leaders must be accountable to their members and all candidates must be elected through a transparent democratic by their constituency party members.
I agree with the views expressed but who will care to hear/read the voice/views of 5,000 or 50,000 persons. Election Commission!! that compiles the voters’ list according to the wishes of ruling elites??
Anyways best of luck. Who knows when the time may change?
Agreed!
This would be a good start to electoral reforms.
Although the dangers are evident, the international community continues to support General Pervez Musharraf because of his perceived cooperation in the war on terror, ignoring unconstitutional constraints on the civilian opposition. However, the military’s refusal to cede real power to civilians and its marginalisation of moderate parties has boosted religious extremists. Instability is worsening, and sectarian conflict threatens to spin out of control. Lacking robust international support for a democratic transition, mainstream parties struggle to survive, subjected to coercion and violence. They can be the most effective safeguard against the religious lobby’s manifestly anti-Western agenda, but only if allowed to function freely in a democratic environment. They need outside help but must also get more serious about reforming themselves.
We are gathered here on this forum, to partake in the launching of a very well researched and comprehensive force on election laws.
I am utterly agreeing and in favor of this effort.
I agree. The first step to cleaning up civilian politics and giving democracy a fair shot at succeeding in Pakistan is for the political parties to be democractic and participator themselves.
If this can be done it surely would rid us of cycling the same PMs and member of the National Assembly across nearly 2 decades.
Good luck
Nice ideas. Wish they can be implemented, and Pakistan can be turned into a real Democracy.
I agree, and also we should start a compaign for full restoration of student unions in our colleges as they are the nurseries of political thinking..then only we can instill political culture in our parties also
I agree and support the reforms proposed in this campaign.
Agreed. All political parties especially those that tout themselves as champions of democracy should first bring democratic system and values to their own governance.
Assalamo Alaykum,
The idea is pure waste of time. When the whole nation or say more than 90% of the nation, including politicians, judiciary, religious heads and party leaders are corrupt, how can you expect that mere suggestion on internet will awake party leaders for damacratic actions. The party leaders are “waderas” and they are never never never bothered about such type of “time wasting” suggestions. They treat themselves not party heads and servant of people, but Kings, Monarchs, Sheikhs and Shahs, who have plundered nation’s wealth in billions and trillions. Even our religeous leaders i.e. mullahs have made their bellies fat with nation’s wealth e.g. QHA, MFR etc.
This nation is not a youngster. The nation is now 60 years old. No change has been noted in the nation and so called “nation builders” after the assasination of first prime minister of Pakistan on 16 October 1952, then how the originatior of this idea of “suggestion” expects that his “suggestion” idea will bring some results? Those who expect some results (even 1% result) they are living in fools’ paradise.
Kindly read my published comments as well.
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/4034/pakistannationyw1.jpg
http://www.carvan.ca/carvan_newspaper/10-08-2007/page02.htm
http://www.carvan.ca/carvan_newspaper/10-08-2007/page15.htm
Sorry friends, truth is always bitter and my this message is also truth and nothing but truth and based on pure facts and nothing but facts and is in good faith and in true spirit.
Last but not the least:
“Surely Allah does not change the condition of a nation until they change their own condition.” (The Holy Quran, 13:11)
Wassalam.
WA MA ALYNA ILLAL BALAAGH.
Qasim Abbas
Let this flouted idea move to the political Parties for the enhancement of the real Democracy with support of the people, as in the case of judiciary (CJP). For the real democracy which desirous vehemently change, as this country Pakistan is being placed as ‘Security State’ instead of ‘Welfare State’ for the feed up of only army on the cost of ‘Public’ and its exchequer, its foreign is being dealt and run by ISI instead of Parliament.
Taking the Stance of Lawyers fraternity in right direction, I agree to convey this message to the political parties to forbid decade’s preceding.
agreed
I strognly endorse the recommendations.