FAFEN voices concern over draft delimitation by ECP

ISLAMABAD, Sep 30 (DNA): Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has
expressed concern over the draft delimitation prepared by the Election
Commission of Pakistan (ECP), noting that more than one-fifth of
constituencies exceed the 10 percent population variation.

In a statement, the FAFEN said as many as 180 constituencies of national
and provincial assemblies as proposed by the ECP do not meet the legal
preferability of 10pc variation in population.

According to the watchdog, the move “undermines the principle of equal
suffrage that was otherwise upheld by the Parliament through latest
amendments in the Elections Act, 2017”.

According to the amendments enacted on August 4, 2023, after
parliamentary approval, the Election Commission was expected to
disregard district boundaries to ensure that the variation among the
population of an assembly’s constituencies does not ordinarily exceed
1opc, FAFEN noted.

The watchdog said the variation among the population of constituencies
may be identified by comparing the population of a constituency with the
average population per seat of an assembly, also called quota per seat.

The quota is calculated by dividing the population of a province, as
determined by the last census officially published, by the number of
seats of that province in national or provincial assemblies, as provided
in the Constitution.

The quota for each National Assembly (NA) constituency for Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa was calculated at 907,913, Islamabad Capital Territory
787,954, Punjab 905,595, Sindh 913,052 and Balochistan 930,900.

Similarly, the Provincial Assembly (PA) seat quota for Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa was established at 355,270, Punjab 429,929, Sindh 428,432,
and Balochistan 292,047.

“An analysis of the preliminary report of delimitation 2023 and draft
lists of constituencies reflects that the parliamentary emphasis on
minimizing the population variation was not extensively used to ensure
the equality of votes in constituencies of an assembly”, the statement
noted.

FAFEN said the recently added provision in the law was only employed in
delimiting 11 National Assembly constituencies — six in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, three in Punjab, and two in Sindh — and one Punjab Assembly
constituency.

As a result, it said, the number of constituencies with more than 10%
variation in population went up from 170 — 82 NA and 88 PAs — in the
2022 delimitation to 180 — 83 NA and 97 PAs — in the 2023 draft lists of
constituencies.

This means that more than one-fifth of the total constituencies
demarcated do not comply with Section 20 (3) of the Elections Act, 2017,
the watchdog said.

The proposed NA constituencies with more than 10% population variation
included 35 constituencies in Punjab, 22 in Sindh, 21 in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, and five in Balochistan.

Similarly, the PA constituencies included 30 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 26
in Punjab, 25 in Balochistan, and 16 in Sindh.

FAFEN, in the statement, said it believes the issue of inequality of
population among constituencies of an assembly has persisted as the ECP
did not update Rules 10 (4) and 10 (5) of the Election Rules 2017 to
reflect the spirit of Section 20(3) provisioned by the recent amendment
that reads, “it shall not be necessary to strictly adhere to the
existing district boundaries in exceptional cases.”

Such inequalities in the constituencies’ population may potentially
result in a greater number of representations by voters, the electoral
watchdog said.

FAFEN also urged the ECP to direct the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics
(PBS) to promptly publish on its website the census block-wise data of
population as under Rule 12(2), voters would require this data for
filing representations.