Editorial
EC's independence still elusive
Bureaucratic red tape must be shunned
IT is the common view of the political parties, civil society and former election commissioners that an Election Commission, free from executive control, can only conduct free, fair and credible elections.
The nearly one-year-old interim government under the leadership of Dr Fakhruddin Ahmad has occasionally iterated its commitment to an independent Election Commission. But still the well-established agenda seems stuck in bureaucratic rigmarole even at the half way point of this government's road map culminating in elections by 2008.
In practical terms, independence of the commission means separation of its secretariat from the PMO, in this case, from the CA's secretariat. It will have a separate budget and the powers to appoint the secretary as the key official and other staff. The EC forwarded a set of proposals on June 7 to the caretaker government whereupon the latter on June 23 approved it in principle asking the Law Ministry to draft an ordinance.
All these months it appears there has been tossing of proposals and exchange of letters between the EC and the Law Ministry on the contents of the ordinance. No less a person than the Chief Election Commissioner says that "principal secretary and the law secretary change our proposals in such a way that we have to depend on them again". The Law Ministry's draft ordinance reportedly seeks to place the EC secretariat, after its separation from the PMO, under the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry. The EC wants to stay connected with the Law Ministry as a division, according to rules of business, but not dependent on it as far as its budget and the authority to recruit the secretary and other staff go.
The matter cannot be kept hanging because it relates to one of the fundamental points regarding electoral reform that must begin from the Election Commission itself. We hope that after thorough scrutiny at the level of council of advisers, the elements that would ensure a truly independent EC would be incorporated in the ordinance before it is promulgated.
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