Individual Counts

As the elections are approaching, political parties have started considering applicants for party tickets. The usual wheeling and dealing has begun and several opportunistic politicians are holding negotiations for tickets with more than one party without any commitment to any ideology or manifesto. It is also well known that the existing practices of the political parties for awarding tickets are not consistent with the basic principles of democracy and transparency. In this context, it is important that the media and civil society take up the issue of the process for awarding party tickets, and the purpose of this article is to give some specific suggestions that may serve as a starting point in this regard.

Initiating a debate on this topic is all the more important in the present situation where some parties are showing a blatant disregard for democracy and negotiating deals with the establishment despite the prevailing mood against military rule even among their party workers. It is also important because the process for elections should not be designed for the benefit of a narrow elite; instead, it should be tailored to discourage the kind of personality politics, sheer opportunism and ‘lotacracy’ that have become prominent features of our political system.

It must first be accepted in principle that party tickets should be awarded through a transparent and democratic process. The party candidate for every seat should be elected by party workers within the relevant constituency in an exercise of intra-party democracy. These elections should be fully open to the media and the general public to ensure transparency. Of course this means that political parties should have vibrant, active party district branches/offices in place where the party members meet regularly and discuss their work at the district level instead of merely sloganeering as perhaps is the case presently.

To put this in real practice, every party should constitute separate election commissions for the district, provincial and national level for the purpose of holding intra-party elections. These election commissions should be made independent of the party’s central executive body in order to ensure their autonomy. The party’s constitution should include clear provisions for this purpose.

Elections for party tickets should be conducted by the district election commissions 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

* not have defaulted on any loans

* not be under trial for any crime

* not have been found guilty of corruption or any other crime by a court of law.

* 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.

It is hoped that these ideas will be taken up for debate by the media and civil society to generate the required pressure on political parties. It is not enough for parties to make rhetorical claims of practicing internal democracy, but they should be made to demonstrate this transparently through clearly defined procedures, and the above suggestions are being given with this in mind.

The issue of internal party democracy has thus far not received the attention it deserves, and this suits the ‘lotas’ and leaders trying to strike opportunistic deals for their personal interests without any concern for the nation. It is about time that there was a serious effort to reform the political process to make personality politics, dictatorship within parties, and lotacracy obsolete. It is going to be a long struggle for the media and civil society to make that happen, but we need to start by raising our voices for appropriate reforms, and repeating them again, again and again in unison until it becomes impossible for vested interests to ignore them.

Penned by Aqil Sajjad