All Returning Officers and polling staff, including reserves, should be fully trained by in-house trainers with user-friendly manuals.

The ECP should provide all voters with clear information on their individual registration details, including electoral roll serial number, and allocated polling station and its location. Parties should not be relied upon to provide such basic information.

During the next delimitation exercise, the ECP should ensure that newly delimited constituencies are approximately equal in size, in order to uphold the principle of equal suffrage.

The ECP should make strenuous efforts to secure enrolment by 18 year olds.

The ECP should ensure that the display period is well publicised, that the draft electoral roll is available at multiple sites within a constituency, and that the process of corrections is accessible and efficient.

The ECP should produce an accurate and complete electoral roll, and consider the possibility of this being subject to continuous updating. The ECP should work with National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to ensure incorporation of any entries not captured through its own enumeration (either from a new enumeration or the one undertaken for the Electoral Roll 07). The data captured should be subject to a comprehensive nationwide check for duplicates.

The law should be amended to require detailed polling station results to be swiftly displayed at the constituency and on the internet. All polling station results should be submitted to the ECP for immediate publication on the official website.

The ECP should ensure agent and observer scrutiny is provided for by issuing specific regulations and guidelines, and through training of ECP staff. Accreditation should be easily available to observers. Regular consultation with observer groups should be undertaken by the ECP.

The ECP should develop transparency in all of its operations (as acknowledged as an essential part of democratic development in UN General Assembly resolution on promoting and consolidating democracy). In particular:
(i) The ECP should formalise and publicise a schedule of its meetings and all resulting decisions should be immediately publicly available.
(ii) All internal instructions issued should be immediately publicly available.
(iii) Information from provinces, districts and constituencies should be centrally gathered and made publicly available on the internet as well as at the local level (for example complaints lodged, numbers of postal ballot applications, polling station locations, polling station results).
(iv) The ECP website should be further developed and kept fully up-to-date.

The appointment of polling staff should be based on an open system for nominations with opportunity for objections. In order to increase confidence in the process, consideration should be given to appointments being open to others in addition to state employees, and the ECP budget should be adjusted accordingly.

The ECP should undertake continuous formal consultation with stakeholders, in particular with political parties and civil society. Institutionalized consultation mechanisms and stakeholder forums should be established down to constituency level.

The ECP should be supplied with the necessary professional staff and reorganized to ensure that it has the skills base and management structures to professionally provide required services. Separate departments dealing with legal issues and complaints, logistics/operations, training, and voter education should be established. Activities in ECP sub-federal offices should be fully subject to central management direction and oversight. Systems should be put in place to ensure sound inter-departmental communication and institutional cohesion. Any outsourcing of activities should be fully subject to ECP management and should be well documented in order to provide for sustainability.

The law should be amended so that appointments to the positions of Chief Election Commissioner and ECP members are based on stakeholder consultation. For example, selections could be made by the National Assembly requiring a broad political consensus. Eligibility could be expanded beyond members of the superior judiciary. The law should stipulate the length of the term of office of ECP members.

Election offences should be reviewed to have more proportional penalties. It should not be an offence to encourage a boycott of an election, as the right to vote also includes the freedom not to vote and to express this view. Offences should be subject to investigation and prosecution with sanctions imposed in a consistent, proportional and transparent manner. Such cases should be heard in a timely manner in order to promote the deterrent effect of the law.

Requirements for candidacy for the National and Provincial Assemblies should be brought into line with international standards by removing the requirement for a bachelor degree or an equivalent educational certificate. Vague qualification and disqualification criteria of a moral nature should be revised.

The existence of an independent judiciary is a general requirement for a democratic state. Steps should be taken to ensure and protect the independence of the judiciary. This would provide effective uncontested arbitration and oversight of election processes.

The Election law and regulatory provisions should include requirements for:
a) consistent verification of voters’ identification;
b) the names of candidates to be mentioned on the ballot for the single member constituency race;
c) allowing voters who have spoiled a ballot to be issued a new one;
d) enhanced reconciliation procedures at the end of polling, e.g. between the number of ballots used and the number of names marked in the voter list;
e) allowing party/candidate agents and accredited observers to enter comments in protocols at all stages of the voting and counting processes;
f) certified copies of polling station inventory forms and constituency results protocols to be distributed to all involved stakeholders, including party/candidate agents and accredited observers.

All complaints should be promptly assessed and investigated where required. The Election Commission or lower level of election officials should refer complaints to the office of the public prosecutor if a criminal act has alleged to have been committed concerning the electoral process.

Particular attention should be paid to establishing and enforcing appropriate mechanisms for appeals against any decision of the election administration. This includes complaints related to inaccuracies in the voter register and the refusal of the Election Commission to register a political party or accept the nomination of a candidacy. Appeals against decisions of Returning Officers should be dealt with by the Election Commission. Appeals against the decisions of the Election Commission should be addressed by the courts. Disputes related to the above kinds of decisions should be concluded prior to the election.

The Election Commission should streamline its operations regarding complaints. It should also ensure political parties are fully aware of the procedures and grounds upon which complaints can be submitted to the Election Commission whilst at the same time clarifying the roles and responsibilities at each level of the election administration in the complaints process. The law should be amended to allow voters, domestic observers or other election stakeholders to file election petitions and complaints in all areas of the election.

Special provisions should be made to allow for the participation of special categories of voters in the election process such as displaced people, migrant workers, housebound and the physically disabled.

Programmes should be implemented to assist and train female candidates and elected representatives as well as those from the traditionally marginalised communities. Increased awareness amongst men and women in political parties of gender issues should also be provided.

Increased representation of women and traditionally marginalised groups in public and political life should be supported to guarantee their participation in the decisionmaking process and higher levels of political party structures.

Political parties should receive periodic and timely information on voter register additions, corrections and deletions, and they should receive copies of the voter register well in advance of elections.

An extensive review of the voters’ register should be undertaken to ensure better quality, greater reliability and accuracy. The development of a civil registry, the introduction of an accessible and free of charge national identification card and a larger period of time for public exhibition of the register would significantly improve the quality of the voter register for future elections.