Raza Rabbani not in favour of government plan to have open ballot in Senate election

• Open ballot in Senate move to hit very basis of creation of Senate, says former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani
• In October 2020, the federal government tabled the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill in the National Assembly seeking an amendment to Article 59(2
• They wanted to replace the words “transferable vote” with the words “open ballot”

ISLAMABAD: Former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani is not in favour of the government's move to present a constitutional amendment in Parliament to hold an open ballot for the Senate election.

He says that deleting the transferable vote for Senate elections will only benefit larger parties and the Senate will reflect the composition of the National Assembly, The News reported Saturday.

“I want to make it clear that I do not defend non-transparency in the electoral process but the move to amend the Constitution for open ballot will hit the very basis of the creation of the Senate,” he was quoted as saying by the publication.

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In October 2020, the federal government tabled the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill in the National Assembly seeking an amendment to Article 59(2) by replacing the words “transferable vote” with the words “open ballot” and it further sought an amendment to Article 226.

He says deletion of the word ‘transferable’ means the system of proportional representation of a single transferable vote is being replaced.

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Rabbani argued that the purpose of the single transferrable vote is to allow all shades of political opinions in the provincial assemblies to be reflected at the federal level. “The entire scheme of the Constitution with respect to the Senate will stand altered,” he said.