The Elections Act 2017: A Critical Study

Abstract

The present study is aimed to examine the critical study of the elections act 20 17. First of all the bIiefly discussed the overview and background of election act 2017. Preliminary committee on electoral reform and their efforts are discussed. khatm e naboat issue is and its politically uproar are briefly discussed especially the high court verdict on this issue is discussed. Criticism on the electoral refom1 and deficiencies are briefly looked pointed out in the research such as overseas Pakistani voting, electronic voting, intra party election, party finance is briefly criticized. In the end key reforms such as caretaker setup and local government setup, registration of voters, security etc. is discussed. Issues like khatmenaboat created lots of trouble in the country. The parliament accepts their mistake as it was technical and re amend the old bill in its shape. Electronic voting is still not paved in oW" system. It needs to be installed as soon as possible in oW" system as it will reduce the rigging issue to a lot of extent. Overseas Pakistanis are still not given the right to be part in the coming election. Some political parties tried best for overseas Pakistanis but they fa iled. Key reforn1s like empowering the election conunission is the very important reform of 2017 bill. The Election Conunission of Pakistan (ECP) is now more financially independent and is investing with equal powers of the High Court. It can now start a disciplinary process against any staff involved in the election process that separates the election law.ECP is now empowered in electoral constituencies where women's turnout is less or less than equal to 10%, and women have been empowered to empower a huge ban from voting to make the necessmy action against the agreements. This is an important and complete welcome to improve women's participation in the election. This work is an outcome of exploratory research work.