Former Chairperson of Elections Commission Fuad Thaufeeq has said that altering laws and rules months before the Parliamentary election creates major issues.

Fuad has said this while an amendment is being voted on, at Parliament to invalidate ballots that have any other writings on them other than the selection.  Fuad commented on the matter on Rajje TV’s “Fala Surukhee” program while responding to a question posed to him. He said that the situation is not ripe to make such a move as to alter the laws and rules.

He said that he is of the opinion that laws and rules for an election should not be altered while there are only three months left. He said that the citizens would have already decided on votes at that points and changing the laws and rules would only lead to confusion among the people.

Fuad said that ballots that have symbols, writings or any sort of code is not an action that should be carried out.

He noted however that altering the laws and rules should still take place prior to at least three months before the elections.

He said that there would otherwise be cause for concern and confusion for those that carry out and organize the election process. He said that to avoid such issues, changes should be brought while allowing the time to generate awareness on such changes. He noted that the due process of the law also sees to it that there is time before an election before changes could be made.

Fuad said that the Supreme Court ruling allowing candidates that lost in the party primaries to run in elections separately is also not an appropriate decision. He said that these decisions at this time would cause various severe difficulties for members of the Elections Commission as well.

He highlighted the 2013 Presidential elections and said that the biggest difficulties were caused by Supreme Court rulings. He said that this was the situation in the 2013 Presidential elections, while he was at the Elections Commissions. Fuad expressed his belief that every ruling by the Supreme Court should be thoroughly researched. He said that there is however an appropriate time to carry out any action.