ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said on Friday it was reducing the timeframe to draw national and provincial constituencies to ensure early general elections in the country, saying it would complete the process by Nov. 30.
Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif dissolved Pakistan’s National Assembly on August 9, giving the caretaker government of Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar 90 days to hold general elections. However, the Sharif coalition government’s decision to notify the results of a new census days ahead of its departure meant the ECP was constitutionally bound to first draw new constituency boundaries before it could set an election date.
The ECP had said earlier it needed until Dec. 14 to complete the delimitation process of national and provincial constituencies.
“The Election Commission has further reduced the timeframe required to complete the consultation and feedback process from political parties and the delimitation work,” the ECP announced on the X messaging platform. “The final delimitation [schedule] will now be published on November 30.”
The election regulator said the purpose of reducing the timeframe for the delimitation process was to conduct polls at the earliest.
The ECP has recently held consultations with major Pakistani political parties about the electoral roadmap, ensuring them elections would take place no later than mid-February, possibly even by late January if the delimitation of constituencies was completed earlier.
Political analysts say if the caretaker set-up stretches beyond its constitutional tenure, a prolonged period without an elected government would allow the military, which has ruled directly for more than three decades of the country’s 76-year existence, to consolidate control.
