| Popis: |
Free, fair and transparent elections provide fundamental legitimacy to democratic process. An independent Election Management Body (EMB) is considered prerequisite for conducting free, fair and transparent elections. Most of the empirical research on the relationship between the independence of Election Management body and free, fair and transparent elections demonstrates a muted relationship (Birch, 2008; Birch, 2010; Rosas, 2010). The conventional models used by Birch (2008), Birch (2010) and Rosas (2010) are not sufficient to evaluate the independence of EMB and this research used van Aaken (2009) conceptual framework to assess and evaluate the independence of Election Commission of Pakistan by using a qualitative research method based on primary data through interviews and primary documents. The findings indicate that the institutional, functional, financial and personal autonomy are closely connected with each other. Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) enjoys sufficient autonomy institutionally but judicial activism and outreach and the lack of financial autonomy restricts it from exercise its functional autonomy independently. |
