ISLAMABAD: Less than two weeks after having announced holding local government elections in the federal capital on September 29, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has now extended this date for 10 days - to October 9.

The decision has been taken on the request of different political parties and candidates in order to facilitate their inclusion in the electoral process, the ECP said on Tuesday.

Accordingly, the deadline for LG polls submissions has been extended till August 28, the poll entity said in a statement.

Previously, the LG submissions deadline was expiring on Tuesday. The submissions are open since August 16.

This August 8, the ECP announced holding LG elections in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) on September 29 — after a prolonged delay of over three years.

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 June, the ECP said that it decided to finally hold the LG elections in Punjab, and directed the Punjab government to fulfil the related formalities. However, since then, the poll body has kept mum over the matter, failing to issue any roadmap for the LG elections in Pakistan’s largest province.

As many as 32 assistant returning officers and 16 returning officers, headed by a district returning officer, are supervising the September 29 elections of 125 union councils of ICT.

The ICT has 125 union councils comprising of 750 general wards and 250 women wards. Each of the UCs comprises of six general wards and two women wards.

The ECP had launched the delimitation exercise for ICT LG elections on June 1 that was completed on July 23. Before the delimitation, the ICT had 101 UCs.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024