Electoral reforms May 2, 2021 In a country where Form 45 has almost become a political term; where the counting of less than 100,000 votes can take hours; and where not a single election has been untainted by accusations of the euphemistically termed ‘foul play’, it is odd that the ‘electoral reforms’ buzzword has been bandied about but not really been taken up seriously. It has been obvious for some time that Pakistan’s crumbling electoral system is in need of reform. In fact, over the past decades, almost all political parties have talked about electoral reform as the essential ingredient to make the electoral system more representative and fair. Unfortunately, little has been done other than the occasional bouts of hand-wringing over the need for such reforms. Now the recent by-elections in Daska and in NA-249 in Karachi, each with their own controversies, have drawn further attention on the need to focus on ideally building a consensus between all political parties on electoral reforms. This may not be easy, but it is necessary. Just before Election 2018, a small step was taken to introduce some election reform via the Election Bill 2017. The bill had some undoubted positives, but the reforms were dwarfed by what the bill did not tackle: the issue of votes of overseas Pakistanis; balloting by mail; the eternal question of political financing and so on.