- The spokesperson said that the election program will be released after delimitation.
- The spokesperson says that there is no possibility of delay in the elections.
- The spokesperson says that there is no ambiguity in the decisions of the ECP.
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday ruled out the possibility of delay in elections and assured that a schedule will be issued after the process of delimitation of constituencies is completed.
“After the publication of delimitation of constituencies, the election schedule will be announced. There is no possibility of delaying the elections,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The official said that all preparations for the elections have been completed.
The spokesperson said the first phase of the delimitation process has been completed and the second phase will be over after objections are filed on the preliminary delimitation.
The official said the ECP will begin hearing objections on delimitation from October 30-31 and the final list will be published on November 30.
“The election schedule will be announced after the final publication of constituencies. There is no ambiguity in the decisions of the Election Commission.”
The country is engulfed in political uncertainty after the Imran Khan government was removed through a no-confidence motion in April 2022.
The coalition government that took over after Imran Khan stepped down from power dissolved the National Assembly on August 9 this year.
Following the premature dissolution of the national and provincial assemblies, the ECP was required to hold elections within a 90-day time period, meaning the elections must be held no earlier than 6 November.
However, the ECP said it is constitutionally bound to draw new boundaries before the elections as the Council of Common Interest (CCI) has approved the census, hence it is not possible to hold the elections within the stipulated time period.
Major political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and others urged the ECP to hold elections at the earliest to end the uncertainty prevailing in the country.
But the uncertainty ended to some extent after the Election Commission announced in September that elections would be held in the country in the last week of January.
In the same month, the ECP also released the provisional report on the delimitation of constituencies based on the recently concluded census, taking the much-demanded general elections one step closer.
