Election dates set for Sindh’s reserved LG seats

ISLAMABAD:

In what is seen as a setback for the Sindh government, election authorities announced Friday polls for reserved local bodies seats in the province through secret ballot from February 20-22.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had on February 4 postponed elections for indirect local government seats in Punjab and Sindh, pending decision from courts on how polling should be held for thousands of seats reserved for women, labourers, worker, youth and non-Muslims.

The ruling parties in both provinces -- Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Punjab and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Sindh – were not in favour of the secret ballot apparently fearing defections.

Sindh had amended its local government law to bind election of reserved seat members through a show of hands. Punjab, on the other hand, wanted these seats to be filled through proportional representation – along the pattern of the general elections.

However, these moves were challenged in the respective High Courts of two provinces.

On February 10, the Sindh High Court struck down the government’s fourth amendment to Sindh Local Government Act, 2013, restoring polling through secret ballot and directed the ECP to immediately fix election dates.

According to the notification issued on Friday, polling for indirect seats of district councils, municipal corporations, district municipal corporations and metropolitan corporations will be held on February 20. Members elected to these bodies in direct elections will cast their votes to elect members on reserved seats.

Polls for indirect seats of union councils, union committees, town committees and municipal committees will take place on February 22.

Earlier, polls to elect members on reserved seats through indirect elections were scheduled to take place on February 8 in all the district councils, municipal corporations, district municipal corporations and metropolitan corporations of Sindh province.

Similarly, directly elected members of union councils, union committees, town committees and municipal committees were due to elect members on reserved seats in their respective bodies on February 14.

In Punjab, elections for indirect seats of district councils, municipal and metropolitan corporations in Punjab were also scheduled for February 8, for municipal committees on February 11 and for union councils on February 14.

The ECP, however, is yet to issue a new schedule for Punjab.

NA-101 by-polls

The ECP on Friday also announced the schedule for by-elections in NA-101 with polls set for March 22.

According to a notification issued by the ECP, nomination papers can be filed from February 17 to 18, while the verification process will be completed on February 23. The last date to withdraw candidature is set for March 7.

The seat had fallen vacant after Justice (retd) Iftikhar Ahmad Cheema had been disqualified for concealing his assets.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2016.