Dawn Editorials & Opinions
responsible. It should also ensure it gets
Poll storm in NA-75 - Newspaper -
DAWN.COM
Editorial 23 February 2021
THE Election Commission of Pakistan
is meeting today to decide on the course
of action regarding the by-election in
NA-75 Daska whose result it had
withheld in light of reports of
irregularities and mismanagement. The
chief election commissioner will receive
reports from all concerned staff of the
commission and then decide whether
there should be re-poll in the 20 polling
stations marred by controversy, or if a
fresh election should be ordered for the
whole constituency. The ECP had issued
a strongly worded press release a day
after the election saying that the staff of
those 20 polling station could not be
reached till the morning while the police
and administration officials of the
Punjab government were also
unavailable..
The election in Daska also witnessed
violence between PTI and PML-N
supporters as a result of which two
people lost their lives. The ECP should
take this election as a test case to
identify all the problems that marred it,
apportion blame where it lies and take
strict action against all those found
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answers about the whereabouts of its
staff that disappeared in the night along
with the results from those stations. The
‘mystery’ must not remain
unsolved. With such a large staff having
gone missing, it would be an absolute
travesty if the ECP cannot unearth the
facts and bring them to the public. The
people have a right to know what is
happening with their votes. At the same
time, the ECP must also demand
answers from the Punjab government. If
the chief election commissioner cannot
depend on the support of a provincial
government, then the leadership of that
government has some serious explaining
to do. At stake is the credibility of the
entire system. If a democratic state
cannot even organise a free and fair
election in a single constituency, and if
the polling staff has to work under threat
of abduction without anyone being held
responsible, then Pakistan’s democratic
institutions are far weaker than we
would want to admit..
The PTI and PML-N have worsened the
situation by sacrificing facts at the altar
of political expediency. The former
party has the most to lose. If it is tarred
with the brush of rigging, its politics will
suffer grievously. It is of great concern,
therefore, to hear PTI leaders pointing
Page 1 of 14
 Dawn Editorials & Opinions

fingers at the ECP instead of demanding highways. The new EV technology is

answers from their own government in
Punjab. It is high time that all parties
took the pending issue of electoral
reforms seriously. Without these
reforms, our elections will remain
controversial and generate political
instability continuously. For now
however, all parties must adhere to the
decision of the ECP even if it goes
against them. They must accept the
findings and the verdict without
dragging the ECP into further
controversy. A lot is riding on the Daska
election..
Published in Dawn, February 23rd,
2021.
Electric vehicles - Newspaper -
DAWN.COM
Editorial 23 February 2021
THE approval of Pakistan’s first electric
vehicle policy towards the end of last
year has given rise to an ongoing media
debate. It has been pointed out that
while we are now one step closer to a
pollution-free environment, a greener
future will depend a lot on the
development of fast-charging electric
vehicle batteries and the availability of
charging infrastructure on roads and
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considered a game changer for the
environment and promises various
benefits to developing countries like
Pakistan that are facing chronic balance-
of-payments crisis by reducing their
fossil fuel imports, and to consumers by
slashing their recurring fuel and
maintenance costs. However, the
adoption of EV technology remains
slow even in developed countries
despite its salutary impact on the
environment and multiple economic
advantages for consumers. Pakistan is
unlikely to defy this global trend in spite
of significant tax and other concessions
announced in the policy to escalate the
adoption of the technology. According
to reports, the government plans that
30pc of all new cars, trucks, buses, vans
and jeeps, and 50pc of all two-, three-
and four-wheelers will be electric
vehicles by 2030. By 2040, 90pc of
vehicles on the road are envisioned as
electric. An ambitious target indeed..
The slow adoption of green technology
across the world has also raised the
question of whether it is advisable for
Pakistan to jump directly into an electric
future or take the hybrid route. While
Chinese carmakers are in favour of a
direct shift to an EV future, Japanese
Page 2 of 14
 Dawn Editorials & Opinions
automobile companies want the
government to follow a route where both
electric vehicles and hybrid (including
plugged-in hybrid) electric vehicles are
allowed to compete as is the case in
countries like India, Thailand and
Malaysia. Hence, Japanese carmakers in
Pakistan have been calling for similar
incentives and concessions for hybrid
technology. The step-by-step approach,
they say, to move from the existing
internal combustion engines to zero-
emission vehicles will benefit every
stakeholder — automobile companies,
auto parts manufacturers, government
and consumers. They have a strong
point when they argue that hybrid
electric vehicles can ‘achieve scales
given their costs and subsequently when
EV technology becomes more
affordable the country can always
graduate to electric vehicles’. The
Engineering Development Board, which
is developing the next Auto Industry
Development and Export Programme
2021-26, needs to carefully weigh the
arguments advanced by both sides and
take ground realities into account before
finalising the new policy..
Published in Dawn, February 23rd,
2021.
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Attack on media - Newspaper -
DAWN.COM
Editorial 23 February 2021
THE attack on the head offices of the
Jang Group by charged protesters
exhibits the kind of pressure that
journalists in the country must work
under. On Sunday, scores of people
ransacked the reception areas of the Geo
office in Karachi, and also beat up a
cameraman and other staffers. The mob
was said to have been enraged over
some comments made by an
anchorperson on a show focusing on
political humour. Although construed as
offensive by some, the remarks aired
were evidently in the context of the
satirical and tongue-in-cheek nature of
the show. Every citizen of this country
has a right to protest, but resorting to
violence and destroying public or
private property must be criticised at all
levels. And more so if an apology has
already been submitted, as it was in this
case by the media house. What is even
more surprising is the fact that the police
did not stop the angry protesters as they
attacked the offices of the largest media
group in the country. They chose to do
nothing, as according to a report in this
paper, they assumed that the person
leading the enraged mob would talk to
Page 3 of 14
 Dawn Editorials & Opinions

the management and come to a Working children - Newspaper -

resolution. The attack was roundly
condemned by journalists’ associations,
representatives of the Sindh, Punjab and
federal governments and other high-
ranking officials. Later, the Sindh Police
promised to take action against the
suspects after “collecting CCTV
footage” of the incident. .
In an environment where news
organisations and journalists are already
intimidated and routinely feel the
necessity to ‘sanitise’ their work, such
violent attacks expose the government’s
hollow claims of a ‘free media’, making
reporters, anchorpersons and others in
the field even more vulnerable to outside
pressure. One hopes that the promise of
better security made by the Sindh
government is fulfilled soon and that the
inquiry ordered by Chief Minister
Murad Ali Shah leads to action against
those responsible for the violence..
Published in Dawn, February 23rd,
2021.
DAWN.COM
By Kishwar Enam
HIRING a child for domestic help is
common across Pakistan. Many prefer to
employ children because they provide
cheaper labour, can be controlled and
more easily threatened, consume fewer
resources, and are more active and
require less space. .
The irony, however, is that although
child labour is recognised as an
abominable infringement of children’s
rights across the world, people who hire
child domestic help look upon
themselves as the saviours of these
hapless children. .
Recently, at a friend’s house, I saw a 10-
year-old girl holding a diaper bag in one
hand and her three-year-old son in the
other. I immediately told my friend that
child labour was unacceptable. Her
hollow justification sidestepped the
issue: “Her parents are so poor that they
cannot afford a single meal; I give her
three meals and clothing.”.

Clearly, my friend, like many others in

Pakistan, has no qualms about
employing children to perform

Page 4 of 14
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 Dawn Editorials & Opinions

household chores. The contract is the Worst Forms of Child Labour

usually verbal and informal and work
hours vary — the work can be part-time
or round the clock. There are no set
rules for remuneration, clothing and
food to be provided, recreation and
vacation; all this — and respect — is
totally dependent on the generosity of
the employer..
People hiring child
domestic help think of
themselves as saviours..
Historically, our governments have
shown little interest in raising the living
standard of our poverty-stricken
classes. It is the government’s
responsibility to provide food, shelter
and other essentials of life so that
parents can send their children to school
instead of work. Pakistan is signatory to
the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child. This convention
prohibits child labour and encourages
protection against economic exploitation
that harms a child’s physical, mental,
moral and social development, while
also interfering with his or her
education..
Pakistan has also ratified the
International Labour Organisation’s
Minimum Age Convention, 1973, and
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Convention, 1999. Furthermore, we
have federal and provincial (except in
Balochistan) laws prohibiting child
labour. Punjab took the lead in passing
the Domestic Workers Act, 2019,
banning children younger than 15 years
from working as domestic help while
allowing those between 15 and 18 years
to only engage in light work. .
And yet, despite all these laws, millions
of Pakistani children are working as
domestic help day and night. Living in
Pakistan sometimes makes you think
laws are not made to be followed. The
tragic stories of Zohra Shah, Tayyaba
and Kinza are painful examples. .
As stipulated by these laws and
conventions, every child has the right to
live with dignity and in such a way that
childhood becomes a period of growth,
learning and development. A child
employed in domestic labour is invisible
to the world and, thus, vulnerable to
physical, psychological and sexual
abuse. Though not all employers are
violent and abusive, the psychological
impact of a child living apart from his or
her family, experiencing a class divide,
and being overburdened with
responsibilities is immense for the
Page 5 of 14
 Dawn Editorials & Opinions

impressionable young mind. These Let’s stop deluding ourselves and

children can lose their confidence, while
also develop feelings of low self-esteem,
hopelessness, guilt, anxiety, depression,
and/or aggression leading to them to
indulge in anti-social behaviour..
Consequently, the hindrance in their
education also limits the potential of
these children for personal and financial
growth, thus, perpetuating the cycle of
exploitation. .
Studies have shown a higher ratio of
girls employed as domestic helpers as
compared to boys in Pakistan. This is
likely due to the discriminatory culture
of only boys being considered worthy of
receiving an education in some
families. .
robbing poor children of their
fundamental rights and access to a better
life. Let us free ourselves of the colonial
mindset of servitude by the ‘lower’ class
and let us intervene wherever we can to
free children in our midst from domestic
or other kinds of labour. Instead of
blaming the system, we can help poor
children by paying for their education
and supporting their families. .
If we cannot afford this, we could at
least refer their case to a philanthropist
or an NGO. But it is critical that we save
precious childhoods by refusing to hire
children as workers. .
The writer is a paediatrician at the Aga
Khan University Hospital..

While poverty, discrimination and Published in Dawn, February 23rd,

marginalisation are major factors 2021.
contributing to the prevalence of child
labour in the country, ignorance and Secret voting - Newspaper -
indifference also play a significant DAWN.COM
role. For poor families, sending children By Niaz Murtaza
off to work is considered to be the best
use of their time as they earn money for THE PTI’s push for open voting in the
the whole family. Instead of educating coming Senate polls has upped political
these parents, privileged families hire tensions. Since the matter is sub judice, I
their children, exploiting their situation, avoid the legal issues before court but
while the government turns a blind eye
to this practice. .
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 Dawn Editorials & Opinions

review the political merits of open explicitly commit to supporting it in

voting.. parliament if they win. .

Secret voting by individual voters in The push for open voting is

national polls became common by the
mid-20th century to end voter
intimidation and ensure their
privacy. But parliamentary voting for
polls for posts like speaker and for
legislation is held openly in almost all
mature democracies. Since legislators
are accountable to their individual
voters, they are expected to vote broadly
in line with their views. Voters have the
right to know how their legislators vote
on all issues..
In fact, parties too have this right as
legislators are usually elected via a mix
of their own and party vote banks and
resources. This raises the issue of
whether legislators must toe party lines
under open voting. Some argue they
should, given the help they receive from
the party brand and resources during
general elections. Also party-based
politics, which works better than non-
party politics, requires a group to pursue
a common vision. So if party members
vote contrary to party lines too often, its
efficacy is nixed. Candidates are also
aware of the party manifesto and in
seeking party tickets implicitly and even
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apt, but not its timing..
The opposite logic is that legislators
must have the freedom to vote as per
their views and making it mandatory to
vote along party line would make parties
autocratic and top-down. In fact, this
reason is also used to justify secret
parliamentary voting so that parties
can’t pressurise legislators into blindly
toeing party lines. But others feel that
secret voting can lead to vote buying
and corruption..
Advanced parliamentary democracies
like the UK, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand strike a balance. Voting is
almost always open. There are no state
laws that require legislators to vote
along party lines. But a few parties, such
as Australia’s Labour party, take a
formal pledge from legislators to do
so. Most parties also use informal
processes like parliamentary ‘whips’ and
sanctions to ensure voting
discipline. Yet they also provide some
free voting on contentious issues like the
death penalty or on issues outside their
manifestoes. Still, overall voting in these
countries is almost always along party
Page 7 of 14
 Dawn Editorials & Opinions

lines. Overall, then, the voter’s and the
party’s right to know how their
legislators are voting and the emphasis
on party politics take precedence over
legislators’ voting freedom but without
nixing it fully..
Our Constitution’s Article 226 requires
secret voting in all parliamentary polls
other than those of the prime minister
and chief minister. Legislative voting is
open but the use of voice votes makes it
tough to identify how individual
legislators vote. Thus there is a need to
better track individual legislators’
votes. Article 63A says party legislators
can be de-seated for voting against party
lines in the prime minister and chief
ministers’ elections and votes of no-
confidence and on money and
constitutional amendment bills. Parties
also use various informal processes to
keep legislators in line and voting is
mostly along party lines. The practice of
open legislative voting is in line with
advanced democracies. However, the
secret voting clause for most elections
held within parliament is not. .
Thus PTI’s push for open voting in the
Senate polls is apt, but not its timing,
motivation, selective coverage or
logic. Pushing this issue so close to polls
via multiple methods sends the signal
that it is motivated more by its own
electoral prospects than transparency
aims. This view is strengthened by its
narrow focus on Senate polls only and
not all parliamentary elections with
secret voting. It ignores even the Senate
chair polls in which major charges of
cross-voting were seen in the earlier
secret vote to remove the incumbent. .
Its logic that Senate polls are not held
under the Constitution as they are held
by the ECP and thus don’t fall under
Article 226’s clause for secret voting is
weak. Any poll required to be held by
any constitutional clause falls under the
Constitution irrespective of who holds
it. .
Its logic that Article 59(2) about
proportional representation for Senate
polls means its results must mirror party
assembly strengths is also wrong. The
reference merely means the seats a party
gets must be in proportion to the votes it
gets in Senate polls via the single
transferable vote system given in that
clause. The fact that senators are not
required to vote along party lines in
Senate polls negates this logic too. Thus,
whatever the court decides, the PTI
should bring a comprehensive bill to end

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 Dawn Editorials & Opinions
all secret voting in parliament after the
Senate polls, leaving it to parties and
legislators to decide how much voting
freedom the latter would have. .
The writer heads INSPIRING Pakistan,
a progressive policy unit. .
murtazaniaz@yahoo.com.
Twitter: @NiazMurtaza2.
Published in Dawn, February 23rd,
2021.
Bleeding from Shylock’s cut -
Newspaper - DAWN.COM
By Jawed Naqvi
SHYLOCK is the big business, Antonio,
the political parties. Let’s throw in
Portia, symbolising law and justice, but
which mostly eludes Indians
currently. The news is heart-warming in
the interregnum though. A brilliant
woman journalist won a tenacious legal
battle with an alleged sex predator of a
powerful social echelon. And
octogenarian leftist poet Varavara Rao
got bail too, albeit for six months. .
But Rao’s comrades, India’s most
brilliant and selfless souls, are cramming
the jails. A battery of leftist intellectuals
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and lawyers along with a merrily self-
effacing octogenarian Jesuit priest stand
accused of plotting to murder the prime
minister in a laughably bizarre
plot. Others are facing sedition charges
for orchestrating communal violence in
Delhi, which their rivals actually waged
under police protection..
An American newspaper has revealed
how the dubious assassination plot was
structured around hacked computers that
were used to plant the “evidence” of the
purported crime. So, the victories here
and there are welcome aberrations —
happy aberrations — in a system that
stands entrenched against equal rights
and dignity for women and which
ambushes dissenting citizens at will. .
Being in penury, or near
penury, is a good sign for
the Congress party..
It’s no secret that major political parties
receive funds from big business, which
becomes a fertile ground for quid pro
quo. In fact, it’s a curious rule of thumb
that the parties whose leaders are in jail
or face charges for alleged graft, are
precisely the ones that the corporate
lobbies shunned, and, therefore, did not
favour with their largesse. It is also
likely that the leaders didn’t accept the
Page 9 of 14
 Dawn Editorials & Opinions

implied quid pro quo and chose to
suffer..
It’s a bit like the movie industry. If one
didn’t pick the money from the usurious
market the movie is likely never going
to find a theatre to screen it. Mayawati
and Lalu Yadav are a case in point of
politicians who have been made an
example of for seeking alternative routes
of raising money, tainted money, to fight
costly elections, and which they mostly
won. Portia will have to be more
innovative than leaning on her fabled
court craft and throwing in a clever
interpretation of law to tilt the
argument. Today, she has to weigh the
cases as presented..
Chara ghotala or fodder scam is up for
public scrutiny and trial by media, a
bail-less crime, but an opaque defence
deal has to be decided for reasons of
national security through sealed
envelopes in highest court rooms. This,
therefore, is a political battle and has to
be fought politically. It is far-fetched to
think of defeating a closet patriarchy or
a renegade state in a court battle..
In this regard, a key component of Prime
Minister Modi’s hare-brained
demonetisation move had a clever
edge. He mopped up 85 per cent of
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India’s cash on Nov 8, 2016. The Uttar
Pradesh assembly polls began on Feb
11, 2017. By cancelling big currency
notes on the eve of a huge election,
which Uttar Pradesh always is, he
sucked out a vital resource the rivals
needed to give him a good fight. .
Why don’t Indian parties crowd-fund as
some, but only some, sections of the left
do? Even in the heartland of capitalism
in the United States, Bernie Sanders
could come tantalisingly close to
becoming president with crowd
funding. Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party
came to power with the help of this
mostly shunned method of raising
electoral funds. In the bargain, AAP
inspired donors to see themselves as
stakeholders in the great endeavour. .
We read in the morning paper that
India’s main opposition Congress party
has run out of money. Elections are due
in key states where the party could do
well, primarily Assam, with clever
handling. It’s a wrong time not to have
money. West Bengal, Tamil Nadu,
Pondicherry and Kerala are also up for
polls. .
Being in penury, or near penury, is,
however, a good sign for the Congress
party and may not be such a bad idea for
Page 10 of 14
 Dawn Editorials & Opinions

India’s democracy either. Remember the
tycoons muscling their way through
pliable media contacts to claim cabinet
berths for their acolytes in the second
innings of the Congress-led alliance of
Manmohan Singh? The ministry of
telecommunications was crucial to the
quest. And with all the deals being done
to monopolise data and e-commerce
today, the stakes were bound to be
high. The BJP has emerged as the
monopoly beneficiary of corporate
donations, not least by tweaking the law
to make the transactions opaque. No
surprise there..
A great reason for the Congress’s
financial crunch is Rahul Gandhi’s
decision to make a direct connection
between India’s prevailing economic
crisis and Mr Modi’s patronage of his
crony capitalist friends. Protesting
farmers, dissenting intellectuals and
assorted environmentalists across the
world have seen through the
plot. (Whoever can see the plot is an
enemy of the state.).
the farmers for the repeal of pro-
business farm laws. Singh favours
suspending the laws for two years
instead of annulling them. The India
Today magazine did some fact-checking
to show that Singh had not met Modi’s
friend Mukesh Ambani, as claimed, a
day ahead of the nationwide strike by
the farmers. The cordial picture of the
two was from 2017. .
Amarinder’s challenger in Congress is
cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu,
a vocal critic of big business. Shylock is
hemorrhaging India. Rahul Gandhi is
losing his MLAs to corporate-political
pelf, the latest casualty being his
government in Pondicherry. It’s time he
went to the people with the bowl, an
agreeable way to involve them in his
bold analysis of the country’s crisis. He
can start to stitch the wounds, not as a
grand leader for which he must win a
mandate, but as a caring citizen like
those languishing in jails. The Congress
will be the richer for it. Good for Portia
too. .

On the flip side of the Congress’s course The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in
correction under Gandhi, an interview Delhi..
was published of Punjab’s Congress
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. He is jawednaqvi@gmail.com.
rowing back from the bold demands by

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 Dawn Editorials & Opinions

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, The problem is with an

2021. electoral system that is
open to manipulation..
How elections work - Newspaper -
DAWN.COM But five years later, one of these two
experts was more perturbed by what
By Arifa Noor
happened on election day and how it
raised serious questions about the
BACK in 2013, a friend of mine was
credibility of the exercise. This should
certain that the PML-N had rigged the
not matter more than what happened in
Lahore seat won by Khwaja Saad
the run-up, I asked, basing my question
Rafique. Fast forward five years and he
on what he had said after the previous
was convinced the Imran Khan victory
election. There were signs enough to
in Lahore was engineered. He wasn’t the
show that the playing field wasn’t level
only one. The conviction came not from
— why expect anything different on
specific incidents but the larger context
election day? The parties went into the
in which the election took place..
election, aware of what was
In a seminar held shortly after the 2013 happening. Why now express shock? .
election, two senior people who monitor
He used the analogy of the frog in
elections, argued that a fair and free
boiling water to explain why political
election — as much as it can be in our
parties were relatively silent in the run-
neck of the woods — is determined in
up to the election but appeared to be
the run-up to the election. If the playing
more aggressive after D-day itself. The
field is level, as they stated it was in
reaction of political parties (a few days
2013, the wrongdoings and irregularities
after the election) was strong enough, he
on election day itself were rather
said, and if sustained could force a new
insignificant in comparison. As an
poll..
example, they focused on the 2002
election as one in which changes in law However, as things turned out, this
and zameer ki awaz (conscience) being didn’t happen. Because both he and I
heard clearly was enough to determine forgot the unspoken rule on which our
the unfairness of the election. No such electoral and political system is based..
thing happened in 2013, it was said..
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 Dawn Editorials & Opinions

Despite every election in Pakistan being
controversial and rigged — as per the
view of one party or the other — each
and every one of them takes part in the
system, while denouncing the election
that brought it into being. And the rest
of us decide which seat was rightly won
or not, depending on our bias. My friend
mentioned in the beginning tends to
believe the underdog has been robbed of
its rightful vote..
One can pick a date at random — the
PPP knew how IJI was established in
1988 and then brought to power in 1990,
yet it formed the government after one
and sat in the opposition in the
other. The PML-N knew how it was
reduced to a shadow of itself in 2002 but
it didn’t abandon parliament. Imran
Khan, too, despite his aversion to
traditional politics and contempt for the
2013 parliament, had no choice but to
eventually return to the floor of the
house. Smaller parties are no different,
which is why Akhtar Mengal continues
to take part in elections as does the
PkMAP. And so far, there is little to
suggest the PDM’s future will be any
different..
Indeed, it is an recognised but unspoken
rule of Pakistan’s political culture that
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all players will be part of the system
while never accepting the legitimacy of
the elections that led to it. A second rule
we don’t like to talk about is that while
much will and should be said about the
machinations of external players who
manipulate elections, the meddling of
parties themselves or irregularities
which cannot be blamed on anyone are
being accepted as benign or simply a
necessary evil. Hence, we shake our
heads at 2018 but ask fewer questions
about the two-thirds majority of the PPP
in Sindh after two terms or the
fantastical wins of MQM in Karachi, till
it was routed by means other than
electoral politics..
Saturday in Daska was not
different. The stuffing of ballot boxes;
the use of violence; the dodgy behaviour
of polling staff and police tactics — not
a single allegation by either side was
new. The amateur videos shot on mobile
phones revealed incidents as familiar
and old as an Amitabh Bachchan film
plot. If news channels’ archives are
searched, such footage would easily be
found for 2013 as well as 2018. Or if
such a search is too time-consuming, the
judgement of the commission that
looked into rigging allegations during
the PML-N government would provide
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 Dawn Editorials & Opinions

some insights into how poorly our preventing the interference of some
election exercise is carried out.. forces but allowing others to continue. .

Perhaps all that is new is the
defensiveness of the PTI government; it
is probably the only party in power
which has been publicly denounced (and
rightly so) for its inability to manage a
single election. It surely is a face-palm
moment. And the noise over what
happened is in itself circumstantial
evidence that the PTI was in charge and
not the shadowy forces. For in the case
of the latter, the noise would have been
more muted..
For example, it is not enough to ensure
parliament (government and the
opposition leader) appoints the person
running the commission. But that the
commission has powers enough to hold
those involved in conducting an election
to account — what can it do if senior
bureaucrats do not answer the phone on
the night of the election? Surely a hard-
hitting press release is not the answer. .
The writer is a journalist..

Now lest I be accused of being a Published in Dawn, February 23rd,

conscienceless centrist who equates the 2021.
wrongdoings of democratic forces with
those of illegitimate political players,
let’s return to the issue at hand. .

The problem perhaps is with a system

that is open to manipulation. If despite a
2017 election reform, our electoral
system is still vulnerable to
manipulation and we are getting starry-
eyed over the ‘courage’ of the present
election commissioner (individual
bravery does not a strong system make),
the problem runs far deeper than we care
to acknowledge. Any reform of the
electoral exercise cannot be limited to

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