ELECTORAL SYSTEM

Thesis Statement

Electoral system is the set of rule that structure that how votes are cast at election for our
representative assembly and how these votes are converted into seats in assembly. In this
essay we discuss about the issue which we are facing during and after election. We also
discuss about the changes which we need in our electoral system.

Political parties as well as elections tend to play a significant role in the politics analysis in
countries across the world (especially developing countries) as well as in democratization and
consolidating democratic political regimes. Political parties and elections are usually used as
a scale for measuring the extent of democracy in a country.

Electoral systems are the set of rules that structure how votes are cast at elections for a
representative assembly and how these votes are then converted into seats in that assembly.
Given a set of votes, an electoral system determines the composition of the parliament Not
only do theses electoral systems vary across the world but they are also, in many countries,
the subject of fierce political debate and argument.

Furthermore, People of Pakistan have been experiencing elections, off and on, but not after
regular and consistent intervals. Many a times these elections were held under different
systems based on the ideas and objectives of the then ruling group. Electoral systems tried in
the past varied considerably particularly under different martial law regimes and less so under
the civilian political parties. Some of the systems experimented in Pakistan were as under: 1)
Basic Democracy 2) Majlas-e-shura proceeded by nonparty elections. 3) Majoritarian or First
Past the Post (FPTP) System with minor variations like separate or joint electorate for
minorities, different numbers of special seats for women, allocation of Senate seats to
different parties etc.

The electoral system currently being used in Pakistan is the oldest system from the twelfth
century and is still being used in many countries. It is commonly known as the Majoritarian
or First-past-the-post (FPTP) system.
First, the reason of low turnout is the feeling, particularly in the educated and relatively well
to do community, that “my vote will make absolutely no impact on the results”. Secondly,
Fifty five to sixty five percent of the registered voters who do not participate in the elections
are mostly well to do and educated persons and as such the opinion of the educated
community does not play any role in the elections. Third, under the prevailing system,
regionalism dominates over nationalism and as such the system does not encourage
integration of the country. Last, Smaller and regional parties with regional interests and with
their supporters concentrated in smaller areas end up getting some seats whereas smaller
parties with national appeal and with their supporters thinly spread throughout the country
end up getting no seats despite the fact that their total number of votes bagged by them may
be higher than the regional parties. The system, therefore, promotes regionalism instead of
nationalism.

In the light of the above discussions, we would like to propose some changes in our electoral
system.

In addition, under electoral rolls, ECP issues list of voters and their place of voting. Voter
should only be allow to cast vote in the area which is mentioned on their ID cards as Present
address. It will make the process easy as ECP would not require to verify their addresses
manually. Furthermore, Scrutiny of the candidates is very important. Corrupt or criminals
should not be allow to take part in the elections. Scrutiny should be serious and based on
facts, not like previous election in which Returning officers asks questions which is not
related to their political career. Almost 70 million Pakistanis are living overseas. Sending
important remittances back to the country. They should have right to vote to elect the future
leadership for the country. It will also raise their interest in the political system of Pakistan.
So ECP should take steps regarding that. Chief election commissioner must be a nonpolitical
and unbiased person. Members of ECP should have proper training regarding the elections.
ECP should have more authority to punish the candidates who breaks the rules of election by
any mean. Many countries in the world, are using electronic voting machines nowadays.
Election commission should also use electronic voting machines which can help to reduce the
rigging. But ECP should also make sure that Electronic voting machines are not prone to
hacking and other cyber-attacks. ECP should take following steps to make sure that
candidates don’t spend more money than the limit set by ECP: Establish monitoring cells,
Hold weekly meeting with candidates and Conduct random inspections. RO’s and DRO’s
should not have political background in any case. There should be no pressure on them by
any person. They should held personally liable for any kind of rigging under their
supervision. In many countries this option is given to the voters. ECP should also provide this
option to the voters in Pakistan. It will help to increase the voter turnout as voters who don’t
like any candidate will also come out to exercise their vote. In Pakistan, many candidates take
part in elections from more than one constituency. ECP should discourage this practice. If
person won more than one seats he has to retain only 1 seat and resign from others, so it takes
lot of resources to conduct reelections. These are the changes which we want in our electoral
system in Pakistan.

To conclude, we discuss about the electoral system reform, the issue we faces during election
and afterward the election. Government have a duty to change the electoral system and make
it corruption free. They should introduce the E-voting system which decrease the chances of
rigging. Government take good initiative by giving right to overseas Pakistani to vote in
election.