The Election Commission of Pakistan’s effort for the de-mock-racy of democracy in political parties by making intra-party elections mandatory before Elections 2013 is a step in the right direction but on a rather slippery terrain.
Pakistan’s political system has been virtually resurrected from the dead after decades of inconvenient history and has somehow found itself at the end of a significant democratic term. Prior to this term, the political parties are argued to have been too consumed with saving their existence, let alone addressing issues like party structure and the level of democracy within them. Although critics blame the parties for the political turmoil in the country and the resulting rise of dictatorial regimes for the absence of this very virtue, it more or less constructs a cyclic argument.
The Political Parties Order 2002, Article 11, though drafted under a dictatorial influence, identified the importance of democracy in a political party structure and ruled that, “The party leader and other office-bearers of every political party at the Federal, Provincial and local levels, wherever applicable, shall be elected periodically in accordance with party’s constitution through secret ballot based on a democratic and transparent system: Provided that a period, not exceeding four years, shall intervene between any two elections.”
It further elaborated, that, “Every member of the political party shall, subject to the provisions of the party’s constitution, be provided with an equal opportunity of contesting election for any party office, including that of the party leader. And that all members of the political party at the Federal, Provincial and local levels shall constitute the Electoral College for election of the party general council at the respective levels.”
Article 12 of the same order rules that, “The party leader of each political party shall, within seven days from completion of the intra-party elections, submit a certificate under his signatures to the Election Commission to the effect that the elections were held in accordance with the constitution of the party and this Order to elect the party leader and other office-bearers at the Federal, Provincial and local levels, wherever applicable.”
The ECP, has made the submission of this certificate mandatory and failure of submission would disqualify the political party from contesting the General Elections. This certificate is to contain information regarding the date of the last intra-party elections, the names, designations and addresses of the party leader and all other office-bearers elected at the Federal, Provincial and local levels, wherever applicable; the election results, including the total number of votes cast and the number of votes secured by each contestant for all of its party offices and a copy of the party’s notifications declaring the results of the election.
Over 216 political parties had registered with the ECP to contest the 2013 Polls, out of which 114 did not fulfill this criterion till the filing of this article. These include political big shots like Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam (PML-Q), Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).
Although intra-party elections have not been an alien concept to political parties in Pakistan and they have been carried out in the past, yet, over time, they have become events of glorification of dynastical hierarchies and a celebration of faithfulness of the party workers to this leadership. The last intra-party elections held by PML-N were a typical example of this as almost 100 percent of the candidates were elected unopposed. Pakistan People’s Party has not bothered even staging such elections and the public meetings are deemed as a source of crowning of party office bearers and leadership.
Although such outcomes are touted as an exhibition of utmost consensus and structural harmony among party workers and office bearers, a tad deeper peep into these affairs reveals that there is way much more to intra-party elections than what meets the eye.
Professor Dr Hassan Askari Rizvi believes that over the years, the culture of political parties has become more and more ad hoc. “What empowers a political party head in Pakistan the most is his/her discretion of deciding who would get the party ticket, which is a direct variable of party elections, if held.” With the current level of insecurity looming in the minds of most party leaderships in the country, it is highly unlikely they would risk their absolute position of power and party control by opening the Pandora’s Box of intra-party elections, he opined. Dr Askari also mentioned the fact that there is no historical evidence of political parties being democratic in an undemocratic setting; therefore it will take at least another term for the system, the society and the political parties to cleanse themselves of undemocratic skirting.
Commenting on the ECP’s decision to make this practice mandatory, he commented that the ECP has not delineated a standard format for these party elections, and different parties have different modus-operandi for them. Therefore, there is no standardized way of gauging their authenticity, at least for now. He also pointed out that even if the format was standardized it would take a lot to validate every meeting and polls through extensive human resource, if that is what the ECP seeks to finally achieve.
The two most broadly argued approaches to promoting internal democracy in political parties are advocacy and legal or regulatory measures. The United Kingdom, the United States and Australia have been reluctant to impose external regulations on political associations due to strong liberal traditions. In New Zealand, the legislation provides for democratic pre-selections of candidates, but interestingly enough, they have never been enforced.
Germany practices regulations on intra-party democracy to-date; these were firstly introduced after yielding to global political pressure to take measure for countering fascism and totalitarianism of all sorts. These regulations include party registration, candidate selection and leadership elections. Similarly, Spanish Constitution, Art. 6 states that political parties are the expression of political pluralism; they contribute to the formation and expression of the will of the people and are a fundamental instrument for political participation, therefore their internal structure and operation must be democratic.
The Finn, however have evolved from a legally regulated setup of political democratization to a system where advocacy and social obligation govern the implementation of this virtue. It was more of a journey from the insecurities of Soviet Communism to the modern world.
In our very neighbourhood, Indian election commission can and has deregistered political parties for not holding correct and democratic elections for leadership positions; however, it has not been a mandatory condition for General Elections. The deregistration is parameterized on the agreement submitted by the political party at the time of registration on how it will uphold the principles of democracy, and it is the duty of the Election Commission to control that party rules do indeed have adequate provisions for intra-party democracy.
Member National Assembly PPP Yasmeen Rehman, believes that the Finnish model suits Pakistan the most as enforcing democratization in political parties firstly through regulation and compulsion and later through advocacy and under the influence of social obligation would aid the evolution. When asked why has PP not shown any intent to adhere to the ECP demand, and how would they contest these elections supra ECP regulation, she said that she was not aware of any strategy or plan being devised to carry out intra-party elections in PPP. “We contested the 2008 election as PPP- Parliamentarians and there is high likelihood that we will take the same route”, she said.
A high official of PPP Administrative hierarchy, made it simpler to understand, saying that intra-party democracy has never been a priority in the party at all. “It has not even surfaced as a demand on any level, as it appears everybody seems at ease with how things are rolling”, he said. Been through the mill in the party for the past 30 years to arrive at the position he currently holds, he said that PPP has held such elections twice. The first time they were held in 1987-88 under Justice (Retd) Sajjad Bukhari as Chief Election Commissioner for these polls. The second time round they were conducted following the membership drive in 2005-2006 and that too only in big cities in addition to the fact that the electoral process never made it beyond district level to provincial and national level.
PML-Q too is currently undecided as to how it will tackle this situation as it is more than evident that holding free-an-fare intra party elections in a country with over 6000 Union Councils. Senator Kamil Ali Agha, too was completely unaware of what the party intends to do in this regard which hints at a bandwagon of unopposed list of elected office holders being submitted before the deadline which for now is January 19, 2013.
Another key reason why all these parties are resisting intra party elections is the fact that the elections are just round the corner and in case the party officials start canvassing and lobbying for intra party success it is going to damage the party success in more ways than one.
It is a natural phenomenon that in any scenario where there has to be one winner out of many, mostly the ones who loose develop disappointment, jealousy, prejudice and a consequent rivalry of variable intensity. Similarly intra-party elections leave bruises and scars on the conscience of the losing candidates, and a process of lobbying to bring the competitor down begins. This leads to weakening of bonds in the party nomenclature and it becomes increasingly difficult for the party to function smoothly and develop consensus over policies and issues.
The fissures caused by this competition are not limited to the intra-party issues but their damaging dynamics extend even further. Political scavengers from other parties very keenly observe such developments and develop close links with aggrieved candidates and lobbies, promising them support against their rivals and at times even ending up convincing them to join another political party.
This is where ‘Clientelism’ intra-party and inter-party is at a high as well and these elections at a number of instances end up binding party officials to strings that would control them later in return for their monetary and political support. Corporate players too eye politicians and take their pick to invest in.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is in the process of completing its party structure through intra-party elections and though the final results are yet to be disclosed, the effects of the phenomena discussed above did their damage as electables were witnessed parting ways with PTI.
President of PTI’s all important Lahore Chapter Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, argued that the intra-party elections have not damaged the party in anyway but has strengthened intra-party unity. “This is the fulfilment of one of our vows to ourselves, the people who support us and the country as a whole and we see it as an achievement”, he said.
A discussion with other PTI players who couldn’t get the desired results in these elections, however, told a different story. “There are factors other than competency and popularity that have affected the outcome of these elections and we are concerned that it might hurt party interest in the long run”, they opined.
While the near-election timing, its repercussion regarding political exploitation and clientelism, and the lack of resources and parametrization at ECP’s end account for the mud and water of this slippery terrain, it remains to be seen if the ECP will risk another political crisis by not allowing the parties to compete in 2013 elections or will these parties manage once again to find a way around this compulsion by Bending it like Beckham.
The writer is a journalist based in Lahore.
