K-P fires off first formal request for LG polls

Until authorities make amendments in rules, ECP won’t consider request

ISLAMABAD:

By firing off its formal request for local government elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led provincial government has taken the lead over Punjab and Sindh.

Sources in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) told The Express Tribune that the commission received on Friday a formal request from the K-P government, fulfilling the first mandatory requirement for holding of LG polls in any province.

The letter was sent by the K-P local government secretary. It did not propose any specific date to hold the elections though.

Amendments needed

Under K-P local bodies’ laws, the poll supervisory body has to conduct the vote from 60 to 90 days once the province sends a request.

However, there are still some bottlenecks in holding LG elections in the province. “We had asked the K-P government to make amendments in around a dozen rules. They have not yet done so,” the ECP official said.



Another official at the law wing of ECP said that until the K-P government makes amendments, the request will remain ineffective. The countdown will start once provincial government completes all prerequisites, he added.

The commission will meet early next week, most likely on Tuesday and discuss the K-P government’s request, he said. It is likely that ECP will write back to the provincial government, asking it to send a copy of amended rules.

ECP officials said it will still take few more months to procure all the relevant material for LG polls in the province.

Under K-P local government laws, there are seven categories and each one would require a different colour ballot paper. The ECP estimates it would need around 100 million ballot papers, 15 million for each category of seats.

Similarly, it would require printing around 1.2 million nomination forms for the contestants. Moreover, the K-P government wants to start biometric verification of voters in certain constituencies as a pilot project. Work on selection and procurement of these machines has yet to start though.

Devolution of power to local governments - a mandatory requirement under the constitution - is becoming a distant dream in the country. There is no working local government anywhere in the country since the last LG system introduced by General Pervez Musharraf.

Balochistan carried out its LG polls in December last year but its local bodies system has yet to start functioning. The other three provinces were given a November 15 deadline by the Supreme Court which is unlikely to be met.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2014.