The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has requested the authority to intervene in the internal affairs of political parties.
According to details surfaced on Saturday, the electoral watchdog has submitted recommendations to the federal government and parliament concerning political parties.
The ECP will appoint a monitoring team for the intra-party elections of each political party. The recognition of these elections will depend on the monitoring team’s report.
The commission has also proposed strict measures to enforce Section 206 of the Election Act 2017. It recommends imposing fines of up to Rs10 million on parties that fail to allocate five per cent of general seats to women. This action reduced women’s representation in the electoral process.
Amendments to Sections 215 and 216 of the Election Act, related to election symbols, have also been suggested. The commission advised rejecting applications for election symbols submitted after the deadline.
Finally, the ECP recommended that no political party should be registered once the election schedule has been announced.
