President Alvi seeks meeting with ECP chief over elections date

President Dr Arif Alvi has sought a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja today [Wednesday] or tomorrow “to fix an appropriate date” for the general elections.

The president assented to a premature dissolution of the National Assembly on August 9, shortly after former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif forwarded the summary. After that, general elections in the country are supposed to be held within 90 days, according to Clause 5 of Article 48.

The development was shared on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) by the official account of the President of Pakistan.

“……by virtue of Article 48 (5) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the President is obliged to appoint a date not later than ninety days from the date of dissolution for the holding of the General Election of Assembly.

“……Foregoing in view, the Chief Election Commissioner is invited for a meeting with the President today or tomorrow to fix an appropriate date,” it said.

Elections within 90 days unlikely as ECP decides to go for fresh delimitation

ECP invites political parties for consultation

Meanwhile, ECP has invited major political parties in the country to hold consultation on general elections, it was reported on Wednesday.

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Secretary Information Marriyum Aurangzeb confirmed that the party has received invitation from ECP. The development was shared on the official account of PMLN on X.

“The secretary of the Election Commission has invited the Pakistan Muslim League (N) for consultation on the electoral process.

“The Election Commission has extended an invitation to PML-N to attend a meeting at the Election Commission’s office at eleven o’clock on the morning of August 25,” it said.

PMLN has formed a 7-member delegation for the talks, comprising of Ahsan Iqbal, Azam Nazeer Tarar, Zahid Hamid, Rana Sanaullah Khan, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Amir Muqam, and Attaullah Tarar.

As per media reports, ECP has written invitation letters to at least four political parties – PTI, PML-N, PPP, and JUI-F, to hold discussion on the elections.

ECP’s Result Compilation System

Election Commission of Pakistan has launched a Result Compilation System for prompt sharing of election results, Radio Pakistan reported.

This was informed at a meeting chaired by Sikandar Sultan Raja in Islamabad.

The meeting was informed that the system would help to swiftly transmit provisional results from presiding officer to the returning officer through a mobile app.

It will also help the returning officers to ensure accurate vote statistics and compile provisional results.

The meeting was told that the system underwent a thorough mock exercise to ensure its functionality, which led to the Election Commission’s full confidence in its performance.

The meeting also examined developments in constituencies with respect to preparations for the upcoming elections.

Delay in general elections

General elections in Pakistan, due to take place this year, are feared to be delayed by many months, after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced launching of fresh delimitation of constituencies in accordance with the results of digital population census 2023.

Earlier this month, the Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved the first-ever digital Population and Housing Census 2023. A meeting of the CCI was convened by then prime minister Shehbaz Sharif to decide on the fate of the census in 2023 amid reports of divisions among coalition partners.

The approval aroused fears of an inevitable delay in elections as ECP will be required some time to re-do the delimitation exercise.

Last week, Chairman Senate, Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani also affirmed that next general elections would be conducted after completion of delimitation process on the basis of new census.

It is pertinent to mention that elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are already witnessing inordinate delay – keeping in view that both the provincial legislatures were dissolved in January this year and respective caretaker governments have since been running the affairs of the two provinces.