Efforts should be made to increase the number of people from religious minorities on the electoral roll and who turns out to vote, through civic education and awareness campaigns.

The ECP should maintain a gender-disaggregated database of election-related information. Such a database should include data on:
(i) The number and proportion of female registered voters by constituency, and a constituency level comparison with their share of the population.
(ii) Women’s turnout by constituency.
(iii) The number and proportion of women candidates for general seats, by party affiliation/independent.
(iv) The gender breakdown of the ECP’s own staff.

The ECP should adopt a gender policy and a senior person responsible for its implementation, with the aim of increasing women’s participation in electoral processes and at all levels within the election administration.

Consideration should be given to changing the system for allocating reserved seats so that the women are directly elected (by both men and women) and have a constituency to respond to.206 Increasing the proportion of reserved seats to 33%, as in the local bodies, would increase women’s chances of achieving a critical mass of women able to work on women’s issues. Consideration could also be given to including a certain number of women in the committees in the Assemblies.

Strong action should be taken by the ECP and state authorities against agreements that prohibit women from voting. ROPA should be amended to provide for tribunals to disqualify a returned candidate if there is evidence that the candidate or their election agent or any other person with their connivance participated in an agreement banning women from voting or standing as candidates.

A civic education campaign should be undertaken targeting both women and men to explain why it is valuable for women to have an ID card, to register to vote and to go and vote. Civil society, the ECP, the Ministry of Women’s Development (MoWD) and the political parties all have a role to play in this.

NADRA should make special efforts to target women to register for a CNIC, since these are essential in order to vote, as well as for many other matters. Photographs should be included on all CNICs as an anti-fraud measure.

Civil society should play a more substantial role in civic and voter education, especially in rural areas and in regards to female participation. Civil society could increase awareness of the Code of Conduct with special emphasis on parts of the process that have traditionally been problematic, such as the role of nazims and local government officials.

Enforcement of PEMRA regulations should be undertaken in a transparent, non-discriminatory and procedurally compliant manner.

The Code of Conduct for Electronic Media (Election Coverage) should include less stringent provisions and should be re-drafted in consultation with election stakeholders. It should be publicly available to the media, the contestants and the general public.

State media should institute clear and transparent procedures to ensure its news and public affairs broadcasts during an election campaign are impartial. There should be a clearer distinction of what is to be considered the activity of officials by virtue of their position and what is election campaigning.

The media should cover elections and political events more generally, with professionalism and compliance with ethical standards. Sources and facts should be verified before publication and inaccuracies should be promptly corrected. Such professionalism could be increased through the development of training programmes and academic curricula.

State authorities should promote the autonomy of the media by taking effective measures to prevent intimidation, pressure or attacks against journalists. Such measures should include protection from unwarranted arrest, and prosecution of perpetrators of intimidation and attacks against journalists.

There should be review and reform of the legal framework regulating media activities, particularly the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Ordinance 2007, the so-called Voluntary Code of Conduct and the Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Books Registration Ordinance 2007. The restrictions on media content should be reduced and clear-cut definitions should be introduced so as to avoid legal uncertainty. Other provisions, which supersede laws already existing, should be repealed.

Agents for contesting candidates should be trained to take a stronger oversight role. For example, agents should know how to file complaints, how to report election offences and should ensure that they obtain a copy of the polling station’s statement of the count.

Consideration should be given to provision of state funding as well as indirect funding (such as free time on public television and radio) to provide a more equal playing field and to reduce dependency on wealthy contributors. Clear and transparent rules for such funding should be established and consistently applied.

Clear instructions should be issued and enforced to ensure that nazims and other state officials do not interfere in the election process and that state assets are not used to the advantage of any (one or more) party or candidate. Any impropriety should be immediately responded to and should include a penalty for those responsible. The Code of Conduct for Political Parties and Contesting Candidates should include a requirement for election contenders not to use public resources for campaign purposes.

There should be a review of the necessity and effectiveness of the structure of a caretaker government. The mandate, functioning and neutrality of any future caretaker government should be more clearly defined in law. Appointment of caretaker positions should be by consensus and should be open to objection. In no circumstance should caretaker officials be involved in campaign activities.

The category of those permitted to file election petitions should be expanded, to include political parties, civil society organisations and voters.

Election appeals (“petitions”) to tribunals or superior courts should be dealt with in a timely manner in order to provide the possibility of effective remedy. A review should be made of the current timetable, with consideration given to reducing the timeframes involved for petitions, in order to avoid returned candidates loosing their seats after a prolonged period in office. The timetable for election petitions challenging election results should be strictly adhered to. Court rules should be amended accordingly, and tribunals and courts should be resourced appropriately.

Full records of complaints, responses, decisions and outcomes should be made available by the ECP for immediate scrutiny.

A clear structure should be established so that complaints are first filed administratively to the ECP, and upon exhaustion or dissatisfaction, complainants may then appeal to the courts.

The ECP should take active steps to address participation by people traditionally marginalised in the process, for example, women, the disabled, internally displaced persons and nomadic people. This should include an outreach programme for voter registration, due consideration in polling station identification, and consideration of extended use of postal balloting.

Compilation and consolidation should be merged into one process. This would require the validity of ballots to be determined by presiding officers during the count at the polling station, and the deadline for receipt of postal ballots to be the scheduled for the close of polling on election day (for immediate inclusion in the constituency aggregation on election night).

Postal voting procedures and practices should be reviewed to promote uptake of this provision by those eligible.