Elections

Regulations

The most significant laws regulating the electoral process in Pakistan are the following:

The Representation of People Act of 1976 (ROPA), the Representation of the People (Conduct of Election) Rules of 1977, the Electoral Rolls Act of 1977, the Electoral Rolls Rules of 1974, the Delimitation of Constituencies Act of 1974, the Election Commission Order of 2002, the Conduct of General Elections Order of 2002, the Political Parties Order of 2002, the Political Parties Rules of 2002, the Allocation of Symbols Order of 2002, the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies Allocation of Reserved seats for Women and Non-Muslims Rules of 2002. Certain provisions of the Penal Code of 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1898 and the Code of Civil Procedure of 1908 could also be considered relevant (135).

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is an independent body with wide-reaching responsibilities and powers (136) including the responsibility of administrating the general electoral process in Pakistan (137).

(128)  USIP, Reforming Pakistan‘s Police and Law Enforcement Infrastructure, February 2011, p. 16.

(129)  Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Reforming the Intelligence Agencies in Pakistan’s Transitional Democracy, 6 March 2009, p. 14.

(130)  Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Reforming the Intelligence Agencies in Pakistan’s Transitional Democracy, 6 March 2009, p. 15.

(131)  USIP, Reforming Pakistan‘s Police and Law Enforcement Infrastructure, February 2011, p. 4; HRCP/ Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Police Organisations in Pakistan, May 2010, pp. 9-10.

(132)  USIP, Reforming Pakistan‘s Police and Law Enforcement Infrastructure, February 2011, pp. 4-5.

(133)  HRCP/Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Police Organisations in Pakistan, May 2010, pp. 9-10.

(134)  US DOS, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014, Pakistan, 25June 2015.

(135)  EU EOM, Islamic Republic of Pakistan - Final Report, General Elections 11 May 2013, July 2013, p. 11.

(136)  EU EOM, Islamic Republic of Pakistan - Final Report, General Elections 11 May 2013, July 2013, p. 14.

(137)  ECP (Election Commission of Pakistan) [website], n.d.

Eligibility criteria for being included on the electoral roll, and therefore to be able to vote, are to be a citizen of Pakistan, to be at least 18 years old, to have a National Identification Card issued by NADRA and to be a resident of the electoral area (with no minimum time required). A further criterion requires the individual not to be declared by a competent court to be of unsound mind (138).

According to the Constitution and the ROPA, any citizen who is at least 25 years old and enrolled as a voter anywhere in Pakistan or anywhere in a province can contest a seat in the National Assembly or in the respective Provincial Assembly. The provision that required candidates to hold a university degree was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2008, thereby allowing more citizens to stand (139).

Electoral system

President

The President of Pakistan is elected indirectly for a five-year term by the Electoral College comprising members of the Senate, National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies (140).

Mamnoon Hussain succeeded Asif Ali Zardari as President of Pakistan on 9 September 2013. He won the now ‘largely ceremonial post’ representing PML-N. He defeated former Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmad of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) in the vote, which was boycotted by the main opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). PPP’s candidate, Raza Rabbani, withdrew his nomination days before the polls, saying he had not been given enough time to campaign (141).

Prime Minister

The Prime Minister is appointed by the President from among the members of the National Assembly and has to demonstrate majority support in the House (142). In 2013, PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif was elected Prime Minister for a third time, having secured 244 votes out of total house membership of 342. Previously, a restriction barred any candidate from holding public office for more than two terms (143).

PML-N secured the largest number of seats in the National Assembly election held in May 2013. Therefore, Nawaz Sharif’s party leads the coalition government that includes the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) (JUI-F), the Pakistan Muslim League (Functional) (PML-F) and the National People’s Party (NPP) (144).

Senate

As mentioned in section 1.4.1 The National Assembly, the members of Senate (104 in total) are elected by the Provincial Assemblies for a term of six years. Twenty-three members are elected by each Provincial Assembly, including 14 Senators on general seats, four technocrats (including Ulema), four women and one seat reserved for non-Muslims. Eight Senate members are elected from the FATA, while four members (two on general seats, one woman and one technocrat (including Aalim) are elected from the Federal Capital (145).

The six-year term of 52 Senators expired on 11 March 2015; elections were held on 5 March (146). Four members, two each of PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) were elected unopposed and polls for four seats in the FATA were postponed due to legal and constitutional complications (147). PPP currently holds a majority in the Senate with 27 seats, PML-N is the second-largest party with 26 seats, while PTI has six seats (148).

(138)  EU EOM, Islamic Republic of Pakistan - Final Report, General Elections 11 May 2013, July 2013, p. 18.

(139)  EU EOM, Islamic Republic of Pakistan - Final Report, General Elections 11 May 2013, July 2013, p. 21.

(140)  CIA, The World Factbook: Pakistan, updated 18 May 2015.

(141)  BBC, Profile: Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain, 9 September 2013.

(142)  CIDOB, International Yearbook 2012, Pakistan: Country Profile, Political System and State Structure of Pakistan, 7 April 2012, p. 1.

(143)  News International (The), Nawaz Sharif elected PM securing 244 votes, 5 June 2013.

(144)  EIU, Pakistan: Political Structure, updated 2 April 2015.

(145)  Senate of Pakistan [website], n.d.

(146)  Geo TV, PTI makes debut, PML-N gains strength in Senate polls, 6 March 2015.

(147)  Dunya News, Senate Elections 2015: PML-N, PPP almost get equal representation in upper house, 6 March 2015.

(148)  Dunya News, Senate Elections 2015: PML-N, PPP almost get equal representation in upper house, 6 March 2015.

National Assembly

As explained in section 1.4.1 The National Assembly, members of the National Assembly are elected by universal adult suffrage and serve for five years. The National Assembly has 342 seats (149). The political composition of the National Assembly is available on its website (150).

Provincial Assembly

The electoral system for the general seats in the Provincial Assemblies is also based on simple majority. Seats reserved for women and non-Muslims are also filled through a proportional system with closed party lists (151).

In the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan the majority of seats (22) belong to PML-N (152). Nawaz Sharif’s party also has the majority in the Provincial Assembly in Punjab (310) (153). As regards Sindh, the majority of seats in the Provincial Assembly belong to PPP (91), followed by MQM (51) (154). PTI won the majority in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (56), followed by JUI-F (17) (155).

In the AJK’s Legislative Assembly 41 seats are filled through direct elections (29 with constituencies based in the territory and 12 representing Kashmiri migrants throughout Pakistan) and another eight are reserved seats: five for women and one each for representatives of overseas Kashmiris, technocrats, and religious leaders. In the 2011 legislative elections, the Azad Kashmir Peoples’ Party, affiliated with Pakistan’s then ruling PPP, won 20 of the 41 seats, followed by the PML-N with nine seats and the Muslim Conference party with five (156).

In the 2009 elections for the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly, the PPP won 12 of the 24 directly elected seats;

10 of the remainder were divided among four other parties and four independent candidates, while voting for two seats was postponed (157).

Elections 2013

On May 11, 2013 elections for the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies took place in Pakistan marking the first time in the country’s history when a democratically elected government completed its full term and was replaced by another through constitutionally mandated procedures. The voting resulted in the formation of a national government by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz which took power on 1 June 2013 (158).

The elections were held in a difficult security environment that affected voters, political parties, candidates, the election administration, observers and the media (159). During the last four weeks of the campaign 130 security incidents were reported resulting in the death of more than 150 people (160). Most of the attacks targeted candidates and supporters of parties identified as secular, in particular the Awami National Party (ANP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the MQM in Sindh (161). Despite the high number of attacks, voter turnout was high (55 %) in comparison with the previous elections (162).

Women remained underrepresented in all spheres of the electoral process and the participation of non-Muslims was minimal. Ahmadi continued to face discrimination and were registered on a separate electoral roll (see also section 3.4.2 Ahmadiyya) (163).

(149)  CIDOB, International Yearbook 2012, Pakistan: Country Profile, Political System and State Structure of Pakistan, 7 April 2012, p. 2.

(150)  National Assembly of Pakistan [website], n.d.

(151)  EU EOM, Islamic Republic of Pakistan - Final Report, General Elections 11 May 2013, July 2013, p. 13.

(152)  Provincial Assembly of Balochistan [website], n.d.

(153)  Provincial Assembly of Punjab [website], n.d.

(154)  Provincial Assembly of Sindh [website], n.d.

(155)  Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [website], n.d.

(156)  Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2014 - Pakistani Kashmir, n.d.

(157)  Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2014 - Pakistani Kashmir, n.d.

(158)  Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2014 - Pakistan, n.d.

(159)  EU EOM, Islamic Republic of Pakistan - Final Report, General Elections 11 May 2013, July 2013, p. 3.

(160)  EU EOM, Islamic Republic of Pakistan - Final Report, General Elections 11 May 2013, July 2013, p. 4.

(161)  EU EOM, Islamic Republic of Pakistan - Final Report, General Elections 11 May 2013, July 2013, p. 4.

(162)  Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2014 - Pakistan, n.d.

(163)  Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2014 - Pakistan, n.d.