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Electoral body freezes formation of new administrative units, says process would be completed by Aug. 3
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday announced the delimitation schedule for assemblies across the country ahead of the next general elections.
According to a statement issued by the electoral body, there would be no further changes to the boundaries of administrative units from April 11. “Delimitation committees for all provinces would be formed by April 16,” it said, adding that all provincial chief secretaries and election commissioners would secure and provide to the ECP by April 26 the necessary maps and documents for accurate demarcation of districts, tehsils and other administrative units.
The ECP said that it would train delimitation committees from April 20-24, adding that preliminary delimitations would be published on May 28. “From May 29 till June 28, the public would be able to submit any objections and recommendations to the initial delimitation,” read the statement, adding that the ECP would hear and decide all objections from July 1 to July 30. The final list of constituencies, it said, would be published on Aug. 3.
Last week, the ECP had expressed an inability to conduct general elections for at least 4-6 months due to legal requirements pertaining to delimitation. In a statement, it had claimed that it had repeatedly urged the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government to notify the census and allow it to proceed to delimitation, but authorities had claimed they would proceed to a new “digital” census. The ECP’s statement had provoked criticism from the PTI, which had claimed that the body was failing in its constitutional responsibility to organize elections.
Section 17(2) of the Elections Act, 2017, reads: “The commission shall delimit constituencies after every census is officially published.” The last census was completed in 2017, however its results were contested and elections were only allowed to proceed under it through a one-time constitutional amendment. The 2017 census was not officially notified by the previous government until May 7, 2021, when the ECP claims it was set to begin the delimitation exercise.
However, a few months later, the PTI-led government announced it was proceeding toward a fresh digital census, stalling the entire process pending its results.
Under Section 19(1) of the Elections Act 2017, the ECP is required to divide each province and federal capital territory into as many separate territorial constituencies as the number of general seats allocated to them under Article 51 of the Constitution. Under Section 20(1) of the Act, all constituencies for general seats must be delimited with regards to population spread, while Section 20(3) says variation in population of constituencies should not exceed 10 percent.