ISLAMABAD: Repeated postponements of the local government elections in Islamabad in the last around six years have failed to dampen public interest in the system as over 3,500 candidates have filed nomination papers for the December 20 polls.
The 3,505 candidates who filed the nominations included 110 women, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was informed on Tuesday.
The scrutiny of the papers willbegin on Wednesday, officials told a special meeting of the ECP held at the Election Commission Secretariat to review the arrangements for the polls.
The meeting was chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and attended by members of the commission, Interior Secretary Ahmed Raza Sarwar and other senior officers.
The commission was briefed on the Islamabad local government system, the procedure for elections to various seats and the steps taken so far by the ECP.
The process to procure the election materials and arrangements for printing of the ballot papers have been completed.
The meeting was told that the commission was in contact with all relevant institutions and ready tohold the elections.
The interior secretary assured the ECP that the Ministry of Interior would extend all possible cooperation for the peaceful conduct of the local government elections.
The chief commissioner Islamabad said instructions had been issued to all returning officers to perform their duties in accordance with the Constitution and law and the ECP’s election programme.
He said work was underway on the preparation of the list of polling stations, transportation and security plans.
He said as soon as the list of polling stations was published and the transportation and security plans were completed, copies would be provided to the ECP.
Foolproof arrangements would be ensured for holding the local bodyelections.
The district returning officer told the meeting that he was personally supervising all stages of the election and the transportation plan was being finalised to facilitate and provide security to the polling staff.
The SSP operations said that 15,000 personnel would be deployed to maintain law and order, while additional force required would be requisitioned from Punjab.
The commission asked the Islamabad administration to submit the security and transport plans.
The chief election commissioner directed that effective security arrangements be ensured during the elections.
He also directed the district monitoring officer to strictly enforce the code of conduct, mak-ing it clear that no negligence would be tolerated.
It is relevant to note here that Pattan-Coalition38 (a network of associations, community-based organisations, labour unions and human rights activists) in its research report released in February this year soon after postponement of elections had stated: ‘Repeated postponement of the local government elections in Islamabad [five times in five years] represents a direct assault on grassroots democracy and raises serious concerns about the subordination of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to the executive.
The report stated that democratic participation in the federal capital had been systematically obstructed, at enormous financial and political cost.
The research report had pointedout that a total of 7,866 candidates in two aborted elections collectively paid Rs37.74 million in nomination fees. Beyond this, candidates spent heavily on legal representation and campaign mobilisation.
The total estimated expenditure for the two cancelled elections stood at Rs544.30 million.
‘This is not merely financial loss; it is the erosion of citizens’ constitutional right to representation too,’ added the report. It stated that more than one-third of respondents [in the survey] believed that the elections were postponed out ofthefearofdefeat by the ruling parties.
It stated that nearly 40pc of the respondents blamed the bureaucracy, alleging their resistance to working under elected representatives.