ISLAMABAD: After failing to hold the local government elections in Islamabad for over three years, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is finally launching the delimitation drive for the union councils of the federal capital from Saturday (June 1) — to be completed in around two months — by July 23.

The preparation of a preliminary list of the UCs in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) would start from June 1 whereas the publication of the final list of the delimited UCs is scheduled on July 23, reads a notification issued by the ECP on Friday.

Presently, the LG systems are functional in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan — whereas the ECP failed to hold the LG elections in ICT and Punjab within the 120-day stipulated period upon the expiry of their respective terms under Section 219(4) of the Elections Act 2017.

This law provides that the ECP shall hold LG elections within 120 days of the expiry of local bodies’ term of a province, cantonment or the ICT.

The ICT local bodies’ term expired on February 14, 2021 and that of Punjab expired on December 31, 2021.

Furthermore, Section 219(3) of the Elections Act 2017 provides that the ECP shall, in consultation with the federal or provincial government concerned, make an announcement of the date or dates on which LG elections in a province, cantonment or ICT are to be held.

In December 2022, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja claimed at a public event that the ECP intended to launch pilot testing of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the general elections or LG polls - besides working on internet voting or i-voting for overseas Pakistanis, for which, the CEC said, funds were sought from the then federal government.

But, contrary to this claim, in July last year, the poll body refused to hold the LG elections in Punjab on EVMs and i-voting for overseas Pakistanis, deciding to ask the then provincial caretaker government to amend the related electoral rules - to allow the polls on the manual voting method. The LG elections have faced lingering delay on one pretext or another.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024