A provision in the Elections Act that has never been widely reported gives the ECP the power to cancel any electoral roll in exceptional circumstances — and prepare one from scratch.

Pakistan is vulnerable to large-scale displacement events such as floods or earthquakes. Such displacements, at times, render the regular electoral rolls unusable. The Elections Act 2017 contains a specific provision for exactly this scenario.

What does the law say?

Section 38 of the Elections Act 2017 gives the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) the power, subject to Section 39’s cut-off restrictions, to order the cancellation of an entire electoral roll of an area and direct its preparation afresh.

The provision can be triggered in three circumstances:

  1. a gross error in the electoral roll itself or in the preparation process of the roll;
  2. changes in limits of electoral area(s) to which the roll pertains; or
  3. large-scale population displacement because of a natural calamity.

The provision is significant in both scope and constraint. In scope, it allows the Commission to void a complete roll — not just correct individual entries — and restart the preparation process. In constraint, the Commission must record the circumstances necessitating the extraordinary action. Combined with Section 49 — which allows an emergency method of roll preparation — these provisions create a framework for managing election administration in genuinely exceptional conditions.

Why does this matter?

Millions of Pakistanis have been displaced by floods and other disasters in recent years. For affected communities, the question of whether their names are on valid electoral rolls in their original districts — or in the areas to which they have displaced — is directly relevant to whether they can vote. Section 38 exists to give the ECP a legal route to address roll-level failures in disaster-affected areas, rather than asking individual displaced voters to navigate standard correction procedures.

Election observers and local leaders in disaster-affected communities can use Section 38 as an accountability benchmark. They can remind ECP to exercise this power where conditions warrant or may provide evidence for such exercise through an assessment of the accuracy of electoral rolls.

Source: Elections Act 2017, Sections 38 and 49.

This post is part of FAFEN’s series on electoral literacy. Read more of this series here.