Ijaz Kakakhel Islamabad
The general elections in the country will be delayed as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday announced the schedule of delimitations, meaning the upcoming polls will not take place within 90 days of the dissolution of the assemblies.
The fresh delimitation of the constituencies will be carried out as per the new census approved by the Council of Common Interest (CCI) earlier this month.
As per the schedule, the new delimitation of the constituencies across the country will be notified in December this year and the entire process will take nearly four months.
The ECP said delimitation of the constituencies will be held across the country from September 8 to October 7.
It said the proposals regarding constituencies will be submitted from October 10 to November 8.
The quota of constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies will be allocated from September 5 to September 7, the electoral body said.
It added that the administrative matters related to the constituencies will be completed by August 31 while constituency committees of four provinces including Islamabad will be established by August 21.
The electoral body said it will decide on the objections to the constituencies from November 10 to December 9, adding that the final publication of the digital census has been completed. As per the Election Act, the ECP is bound to draw new boundaries for hundreds of provincial and national assembly constituencies across the country, the statement added. Earlier this month. the CCI meeting chaired by then prime minister Shehbaz Sharif approved the final results of the 7th Population and Housing Census 2023 reporting the country’s population at 241.49 million with a growth rate of 2.55%. The CCI approval made it constitutionally mandatory for the for the ECP to hold elections following fresh delimitations in the light of the results of the 7th census.
According to Article 51 (5) of the Constitution, the seats of the National Assembly to each province and the federal capital shall be allocated on the basis of population in accordance with the last preceding census officially published.
