close
Monday December 23, 2024

EXPLAINER: To what extent a commissioner is involved in electoral process?

Polls rigging allegations by Rawalpindi commissioner sends shock-waves across country amid uncertainty on govt formation

By Kiran Khan
February 17, 2024
In this illustration, Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatha speaks to journalists in Rawalpindi, on February 17, 2024, in this still taken from a video.
In this illustration, Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatha speaks to journalists in Rawalpindi, on February 17, 2024, in this still taken from a video. 

KARACHI: Startling claims by Rawalpindi Division Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatha of abetting large-scale electoral rigging in the garrison town has thrown shade at the polls result as the country already faces uncertainty regarding the government formation.

“We converted the losers into winners with 50,000 votes margin,” Chatha stated while taking responsibility for the alleged tampering of the polls results in a rare press conference.

However, authorities say that a commissioner has no role to play in the electoral process.

Joint Provincial Election Commissioner Sardar Nazar Abbas told Geo.tv that the commissioner has no involvement in the electoral process.

The commissioner, he noted, just has to facilitate the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on an administrative level, for example, providing transportation to the officials deputed as the returning officers (ROs) or the assistant returning officers (AROs).

EXPLAINER: To what extent a commissioner is involved in electoral process?

This, too, is in case the ECP's ropes in the commissioners for administrative affairs, otherwise, they have absolutely no participation in the electoral process.

As for the hierarchy in the electoral process, the ECP is the topmost authority, while the next in line are the provincial election commissions, the district returning officers (DROs), ROs, and AROs.

There are two to three AROs working under the RO, who report to the DRO, who is direct with the provincial election commissioner.

The presiding officers are responsible for the preparation of Form-45, which comprises the results of a single polling station, while the ROs are responsible for preparing Form-47s — which complies results of a constituency based on Form-45.

Not even the DROs are involved in the compilation of results in the Form-47s, Abbas said. Hence, there is "no interference" of a commissioner in the electoral process, he explained.

Following the bombshell presser, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which secured a landslide victory in the division, also said the commissioner has no role in result compilation, while other major parties demanded an investigation into the allegations.