What’s a commissioner’s role in election process, if any?

KARACHI: Controversy shrouded the general election 2024’s results in the Rawalpindi Division after Commissioner Liaqat Ali Chatha made shocking revelations of abetting large-scale electoral rigging.

“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).

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 (PMLN), 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.