Paper short abstract:

This article examines the impact of election management by bureaucrats on political parties’ electoral decision making in Pakistan’s 2013 general election, and argues that democratic legitimacy in transitional societies is undermined by the lack of institutionalisation of the electoral process.

Paper long abstract:

This article focuses on Pakistan's general election of 2013 and examines the impact of election management by bureaucrats on political parties' electoral decision making.

The electoral process is one of the primary means through which democracy is legitimised. However, before the voter makes his choice on polling day, a series of decisions are made by bureaucrats and political parties that affect the options available to the voter. By studying the Election Commission of Pakistan and its management of the 2013 general election, this paper contends that election management (including but not limited to laws and regulations, and their implementation; delimitation; scrutiny; voter registration and education; and polling day arrangements) by unelected bureaucrats, unaccountable to the public, influences the decisions that political parties make with regard to the electoral process. Ad-hoc rulings caused parties to re-think their decisions regarding candidate selection, ticket distribution, and campaigning, frequently at the last minute. As a result, even though the 2013 election was considered to be largely free and fair, the process had arguably already been compromised, calling the democratic mandate into question and creating mistrust amongst the electorate.

The paper concludes by arguing that until the election management process is transparent, institutionalised and uniformly implemented, democracy can not legitimately take root in transitional societies.