The Election Amendment Bill has been approved, but no additional powers have been granted to the caretaker government.
The Election Amendment bill was adopted by the joint session of parliament, according to details.
A candidate may name up to three polling agents at one polling station under the proposed revisions, although only one polling agent may be present at any given time. According to the bill, the presiding officer is required to notify the voter list outside the polling place.
The joint session also passed an amendment for the transparency of postal balloting, which said that the ECP will upload the information of the postal ballot on the website before elections, and if the winning or losing ratio is 5%, votes will be recounted.
The bill states that if the difference in votes is 8000 in the national assembly constituency and 4000 in the provincial assembly, a recount will be conducted in the presence of the candidates by the presiding officer.
Furthermore, the Election Amendment Bill prohibits the caretaker government from entering into new international agreements but allows it to continue and sign actions connected to existing agreements.
Previously, it was reported that tensions between government partners were rising as the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s complaints about Clause 230 of the Election Act remained unresolved.
The PPP contends that the caretaker government’s powers have been expanded in an unnecessary way.
The major job of the caretaker administration is to oversee the day-to-day business and hold transparent elections; however, the PPP has stated that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is not trusting the allies on critical issues.
The committee did not approve the inclusion of transitional provisions in Class 2A of the Election Act, as suggested by the PPP.
