Secret voting.

Byline: Dr Niaz Murtaza

THE PTI's push for open voting in the coming Senate polls has upped political tensions. Since the matter is sub judice, I avoid the legal issues before court but review the political merits of open voting.

Secret voting by individual voters in national polls became common by the mid-20th century to end voter intimidation and ensure their privacy. But parliamentary voting for polls for posts like speaker and for legislation is held openly in almost all mature democracies. Since legislators are accountable to their individual voters, they are expected to vote broadly in line with their views. Voters have the right to know how their legislators vote on all issues.

In fact, parties too have this right as legislators are usually elected via a mix of their own and party vote banks and resources. This raises the issue of whether legislators must toe party lines under open voting. Some argue they should, given the help they receive from the party brand and resources during general elections. Also party-based politics, which works better than non-party politics, requires a group to pursue a common vision. So if party members vote contrary to party lines too often, its efficacy is nixed. Candidates are also aware of the party manifesto and in seeking party tickets implicitly and even explicitly commit to supporting it in parliament if they win.

The push for open voting is apt, but not its timing.

The opposite logic is that legislators must have the freedom to vote as per their views and making it mandatory to vote along party line would make parties autocratic and top-down. In fact, this reason is also used to justify secret parliamentary voting so that parties can't pressurise legislators into blindly toeing party lines. But others feel that secret voting can lead to vote buying and corruption.

Advanced parliamentary democracies like the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand strike a balance. Voting is almost always open. There are no state laws that require legislators to vote along party lines. But a few parties, such as Australia's Labour party, take a formal pledge from legislators to do so. Most parties also use informal processes like parliamentary 'whips' and sanctions to ensure voting discipline. Yet they also provide some free voting on contentious issues like the death penalty or on issues outside their manifestoes. Still, overall voting in these countries is almost always along party lines. Overall, then, the...