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AN ACT
to provide guidelines on voting shares and policies for voting in general elections. It is hereby enacted as follow:1. Short title, extent and commencement.- (1) This Act may be called the General Elections Act, 2011. (2) It extends to the whole of Pakistan. (3) This section shall come into force in the next general elections. 2. Eligibility.- (1) The voting rights can only be exercised by citizens of Pakistan who are of age and:a) have been awarded a Secondary School Certificate (SSC) from a registered secondary board in Pakistan or equivalent, or b) pay over Rs.100,000 in taxes and donations per year (2) If a subject has not completed the sentence and a waiting period for any criminal charges, he/she will be ineligible to vote. (3) Overseas Pakistanis can cast their votes, if they are eligible, to the electorates of the constituencies where they belong to in Pakistan. 3. Voting Shares.- (1) Every eligible individual will be assigned a unit weight. (2) Additional weights are to be assigned to the votes of eligible individual based on:a) the academic qualification of the voter b) contribution of the voter to the state in form of taxes and donations c) medals or any honors awarded by the state to the voter. 4. Infrastructure.- (1) Voting lists are to be finalized a week before the elections (2) Computerized booths are to be setup and preparation to be completed a month before the elections (3) NIC and thumb impression of the voters would be scanned at the voting booths to eliminate the chance of any unlawful activities. (4) Voting Booths would be setup in Pakistani Embassies where overseas citizens would cast their votes. 5. Removal of difficulties.- The Federal Government may, for the purposes of removing any difficulty or for bringing the provisions of this Act into effective operation, by order, direct that provisions of this Act shall, during such period as may be specified in the order, have effect subject to such adaptations whether by way of modification or addition or omission as it may deem to be necessary or expedient.
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Advantages
The policies enforced by this act will empower the responsible and educated massed of the country. The overseas citizens that represent the educated and more aware masses of the nation and are over 5 million in number will be able to exercise their voting right. This would result in free and fair elections and selection of a better government. Better checks and balances would eliminate any possibility of bogus votes and election rigging.
Disadvantages
There is a significant cost to setup the infrastructure and machinery for such a system. Qualified committee and teams need to be formed to carry out these duties effectively. The feudal lords and those whose vote bank constitutes mostly of the illiterate and poor masses will strong oppose this act. People might argue that this act discriminates between the rich and poor, and the literate and illiterate people.
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