Casting the net wide for electoral reforms

Drawing comparisons of effective electoral reforms between Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and Myanmar at a forum in September 2016, participants from the hosting country Myanmar explored how its neighbours' electoral reform experiences could inform Myanmar’s future reform process. Relevant insights included electronic voting and the well-established Election Commission’s structure in India as much as Sri Lanka’s perception of the proportional representation system and Parliament’s efforts in Pakistan to push forward electoral reform.

The two day forum was hosted by DRI and STEP Democracy and included fourty representatives of electoral management bodies, civil society organisations and political parties.

Shazia Jannat Marri, member of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms of the National Assembly of Pakistan, highlighted the importance of learning from past election mistakes. She then focused on the importance of women's political participation and the need to reach out to female voters. She also called for a strengthened Election Commission with increased staff training and support. Asked by a participant in the audience on the difficulty in changing legislation, Marri acknowledged the difficulty of changing election laws.

Sharing his insights from India, Dr. S.Y. Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, stressed multi stakeholder engagement, in particular the leading role of political parties and the Election Commission, as key in the electoral reform process. Furthermore, he explained the importance of credibility of political institutions, the role of political parties' agents, the use of electronic voting machines and their importance in remote areas in particular, where reliable electricity supply is often limited.

Asked about India’s take on minority rights and inclusiveness, Quaraishi responded that these are tackled through a decentralised election system and locally selected staff, as well as legally enshrined political rights for minorities.

Luwie Ganesgathasan from the Center for Policy Alternatives in Sri Lanka deconstructed the myth of a 'best' election system. He argued that while the adopted proportional representation system in Sri Lanka enabled greater inclusion of ethnic minority groups’ political parties, it depended on the local context of each country whether or not this system was preferable and more suitable to majoritarian elections.

While the parties in Sri Lanka believe that the proportional representation system will reduce the role of money in elections and intra-party conflicts while strengthening the link between deputies and their voters, Ganesgathasan conceded the system’s challenges, including the potential for the biggest parties to be involved in fierce competition.

 "People will have to make the choice, there is no 'best' election system."

Stefan Krause, Myanmar Field Office Director of The Carter Center, pointed out the particular challenges in Myanmar when changing the electoral system, such as the need for constitutional adaption, which is typically an arduous and lengthy process. By the same token, the way that constituencies are delimited currently gives voters in smaller constituencies more political influence, Krause noted.

Closing the forum, Myanmar's Union Election Commission Chairman Mr. U Hla Thein expressed his interest for electronic voting machines as used in India. He also emphasised that progress has been made with the 2015 elections including the increased role of election observers and a plurality of political parties. Thein acknowledged the on-going difficulties and challenges such as the need for raising citizens’ awareness in areas with ethnic minorities, and increasing the political representation of women.

"We welcome stakeholders' thoughts and involvement to jointly consider a suitable solution."

This event was organized in collaboration with STEP Democracy within the framework of the project “Support to Electoral Processes and Democracy“, funded by the European Union.