Pakistan’s election body plans to reduce delimitation duration to ensure early national polls

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said on Wednesday it was hoping to reduce the time required to redraw national and provincial constituencies to ensure early general elections in the country.
Pakistan’s national and two provincial assemblies were dissolved earlier this month, requiring the election regulatory body to arrange free, fair and transparent national polls within the 90-day duration that ends in November.
However, the ECP circulated a notification on August 17, saying it would finalize the delimitation work by December 14 by redrawing the boundaries of national and provincial constituencies on the basis of the latest digital census carried out in April before announcing the election schedule.
The announcement implied that the upcoming general elections in Pakistan would not be held within the constitutionally stipulated period, causing concern among major political parties.
Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, who has been consulting leading political factions in Pakistan, tried to address the issue during an interaction with an Awami National Party (ANP) delegation from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“According to the schedule issued by the election commission, the constituency work will be completed within 120 days on December 14, 2023,” an ECP handout quoted him as saying. “The election commission intends to further reduce the duration of the constituency work and plans to announce the election schedule immediately after that.”
“It is also possible that the election schedule will be announced in the next few days after reducing the period of delimitation work,” he added.
The ANP delegation had insisted that elections must be held within 90 days, as per the constitution.
It also maintained the ECP should have consulted political parties before initiating the delimitation exercise.
The ANP delegation urged the chief election commissioner to announce and the schedule of the national polls to end the political uncertainty surrounding the electoral contest.
The top ECP official also held a meeting with members of the Balochistan National Party and offered them similar assurances.