UNDP committed to improving electoral process

Following the second phase of local elections in Pakistan on 21 March, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has reiterated its commitment to enhancing transparency and accountability in the Pakistani election process. The four rounds of local elections due to be completed later this year, are part of the military government's planned devolution of power. Pakistan's military leader General Pervez Musharraf publicly pledged to hold general elections within the next two years, following his seizure of power on 12 October 1999. The UNDP intends to continue to work with government authorities and local NGOs through to the third quarter of 2003 at least, as part of an ongoing project entitled 'Supporting Democratic Electoral Processes in Pakistan' (SDEPP), Stephane Oertel, a programme officer for the election commission project, told IRIN on Tuesday. UNDP Resident Representative for Pakistan Onder Yuncer on Thursday 22 March visited the Election Commission secretariat in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, where a computerised electoral system was installed to increase credibility and improve efficiency in the election process. Election results are monitored in the state-of-the-art computer control, where statistics such as the percentage of voter turnout, and those of females and minorities, can be detailed. Fully operational since the first round of local elections on 31 December, the election monitoring room is just one part of the $5 million funded project, made possible by funding from the Norwegian government and the British Department for International Development (DFID). Among the factors which motivated the project, which was started in November 1997, were: an ineffective manual registration system resulting in poor voter registration and statistics; low registration of female voters; a poor-service-oriented Election Commission; and poor technological capacity, Oertel said. "The first component of the project is with the Pakistan government Election Commission, in order to modernise the election process via computerisation, training, and technical assistance," he told IRIN. The second component involves collaboration with several local NGOs working to motivate and mobilise female voters and candidates in the political process. "Based on data from the first and second rounds of the local elections, there has been a substantial improvement in both these areas following the last provincial elections in 1997," Oertel said. "In all four voting provinces, voter turnout and female candidate registration has increased." On the wider front, despite calls for early elections by political opposition and human rights groups citing a Supreme Court ruling accepted by the government, Pakistan's military leader General Pervez Musharraf reiterated that there would be no possibility of general elections before October 2002, the BBC reported on Sunday.