February 21; PILDAT has welcomed the decision by the ECP to make electoral candidates� data available online. In a long-standing demand, PILDAT and its Citizens Group on Electoral Process had been asking the ECP to provide public access to disclosure and declarations made by the electoral candidates.

Ahead of every election, the ECP obtains key information through nomination papers that each candidate has to submit, including declaration of information such as educational qualification, list of criminal cases, amount of income tax, land revenue paid, statement of assets and liabilities of the candidate, and candidate�s status of nationality, etc. However, despite getting all this information, the ECP did not publicise it for the voters� knowledge and information. Even though Nomination Papers are considered a public document, a bureaucratic and time-consuming procedure has been in place to access these disclosures.

PILDAT, therefore, had been maintaining that:

1. The ECP should make arrangements to upload all disclosures received through Nomination Papers for each constituency on the ECP website before every Election and within 24 hours of filing of the nomination forms.

2. The availability of this information at ECP website be publicised for public knowledge.^[1]

Welcoming the ECP decision on its long-standing demand, PILDAT has said that the ECP must now ensure that comprehensive information of candidates is available in a timely manner online.

References:
1. PILDAT�s reform proposal as contained in PILDAT Paper: The Unfinished Agenda of Electoral Reforms, July 2012, Page 8, accessible at: http://www.pildat.org/Publications/publication/elections/TheunfinishedAgendaofElectoralReformsPILDAT_July2012.pdf