While addressing a press conference on December 1, 2013 in Islamabad, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan said his party-led government would hold local elections using a biometric system to ensure transparency.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is a constitutional body and is the chief electoral management body of the country. It is responsible for holding general and local body elections in the country. On November 2, the Election Commission of Pakistan announced it would hold local body elections across the country. According to the experts, the Election Commission of Pakistan has been using outdated methods to hold elections which led to rigging in the general elections of Pakistan. Political figures and members of the wider public accuse ECP of being biased and using odd methods for giving favor to political parties of its choice. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the ruling party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, blamed electoral rigging for its defeat in many areas of the country in May 2013 elections. PTI chief Imran Khan announced that votes in elections for local bodies would be polled using a new biometric system in his province in order to ensure transparency. The schedule of local body elections in KPK has not been yet announced.
ECP spokesperson Khurshid Alam told Truth Tracker that on December 28, 2013, “The Provincial Election Commission of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa held mock voting under the biometric system at village councils of Budhni, ward Wadpagga and Sir Buland Pura in the district of Peshawar to ascertain the success of the biometric system in holding error-free polling.” He cited many issues associated with the biometric system including: dust on thumbs, extra time consumption, henna (tattoo) applied on hands of females, missing ridges on the thumbs of laborers, data security, a heavy cost and the manufacturing of machines, etc.
He said mock voting was conducted in the presence of acting Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan Justice Nasirul Mulk and KPK Election Commissioner Sono Khan Baloch. The KP Secretary of Local Government was also there. Alam said biometric system had been developed by NADRA and were not suited to hold local body polls in a country like Pakistan.
In an interview with Truth Tracker, Deputy Director Provincial Election Commission, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khushal Khan said they had conducted mock voting vis-a-vis a biometric system in elections for local bodies and had sent a report to the Election Commission of Pakistan in Islamabad.
“ECP will decide the final fate of biometric system,” he added.
“We are determined to hold elections for local bodies using the biometric system unless a big issue arises,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf spokesperson Andleeb Abbas told Truth Tracker. She pointed out that the biometric system had glaring flaws, as ECP officials reported, but she said that mock exercise were done to ascertain these flaws and correct them. “We have formed a committee which will resolve these issues,” she added.
When asked about the schedule of local elections polling in KPK, she responded that PTI planned to hold local body elections after March 2014.
“There is no denying the fact that rigging complaints always surfaced in the history of Election Commission of Pakistan, which has affected democratic evolution and political stability in the country,” said renowned electoral expert Dr Mehdi Hassan, professor of mass communication at Beacon House University.
“Pakistan should introduce a central biometric system. However, it is good and wise step of PTI to introduce biometric system in KPK. The ruling party PML-N should follow the suit,” Hassan added.
In the light of various viewpoint and facts, Truth Tracker rules that fulfillment of the promise is underway.
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