ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday ended speculations about the upcoming general elections and assured the Awami National Party (ANP) that if the delimitation of constituencies is completed. Elections will be held by mid-February or end of January at most.
The statement came after separate consultative meetings with ECP officials on the general election roadmap of ANP, Balochistan National Party (BNP) and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP).
Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja presided over the meeting which was attended by commission members, secretary and senior officers of ECP.
Meeting with Political Party ANP on 30th August 2023#ECP pic.twitter.com/EGxDdxQGy2
— Election Commission of Pakistan (OFFICIAL) (@ECP_Pakistan) August 30, 2023
The ANP delegation was led by its Secretary General Mian Iftikhar Hussain and included Central Spokesperson Zahid Khan, Khushdal Khan Advocate and Abdul Rahim Wazir Advocate.
Naseebullah, Manzoor Kakar, Noor Mohammad Domar, Sardar Abdul Rahman Khetran appeared from BAP and Abdul Karim Noshrwani, Sana Jamali and Danish Kumar appeared from BNP.
ANP leaders said the commission assured them to squeeze the delimitation timeline as much as possible. The commission assured them that the elections would not go beyond mid-February.
According to a statement issued by the commission, the ANP team insisted on the date and schedule of the election exercise, if it was not possible to hold the elections within 90 days. He briefed the Election Commission that according to the Constitution the elections should be held within 90 days and the Election Commission should have consulted the political parties before starting the delimitation because the Commission could reduce or reduce the seats allotted in the provinces under the Constitution. Can’t increase. Hence there was no need for new delimitation.
He said that the ECP can hold seats only within the province and the commission is a constitutional body and he has full confidence in it.
Therefore, the delimitation decision taken by the Commission must have been taken after deliberation. Therefore, the date and schedule of the elections should be announced now so that the political parties and the people can be satisfied.
The CEC said that as per the schedule issued by the commission, the delimitation work was to be completed within 120 days on December 14, 2023. The election schedule will be announced soon. It is also possible to reduce the duration of the constituency and announce the election schedule in the next few days.
The BAP delegation supported the ECP’s decision on delimitation of constituencies and the members of the delegation said that since the results of the census have been published, delimitation according to the new census should not be done by political parties, candidates. And people will be insulted. The BAP expressed full confidence in the ECP and also expressed confidence in many of its decisions in the past.
BNP representative Agha Hassan Baloch said that ECP should try to hold elections within 90 days. He said that the new census appeared to be flawed in which the population of Balochistan was underestimated. Therefore, our party believes that the new delimitation is of no use. If the Election Commission feels that delimitation is necessary, the process should be corrected.
The CEC assured the delegations that the commission would ensure quick elections after reducing the limitation period.
Speaking to media persons outside the ECP, Mian Iftikhar said that the electoral body has assured to complete the delimitation of constituencies at a fast pace so that general elections can be held in mid-February.
