ECP redraws constituencies for next elections

On Friday the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) published the final list of 266 constituencies of the National Assembly and 593 constituencies of the four provincial assemblies for the future general elections, based on the Sixth Population and Housing Census, 2017.

The process of delimitation of the constituencies has been completed in nearly four months. In June, the ECP had invited public objections and suggestions regarding the delimitation. In July, the polls supervisor disposed of 910 objections, and published the final list.

“The final list of constituencies is hereby published for information of general public in accordance with the provisions of Section 21 of the Elections Act, 2017 read with Rule 14 of the Elections Rules, 2017,” the ECP said in its notification.

In the new delimitation the number of general seats of the National Assembly has been reduced from 272 in the present assembly to 266. The reduction of 6 seats came in accordance with the 25th Constitutional Amendment, following the merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

According to the notification, 859 general seats – 266 of the National Assembly and 593 of the four provincial assemblies – had been created for the next general elections. Accordingly, Punjab had been allocated 141 National Assembly and 297 provincial assembly seats.

Sindh has 61 and 130 seats, respectively, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been allocated 45 and 115 general seats, respectively, and Balochistan got 16 and 51 seats, respectively. There would be three general seats for Islamabad in the National Assembly.

In the National Assembly, Balochistan would have 16 general seats and four seats for women, totalling 20; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 45 general seats and 10 women seats, totalling 55; Punjab 141 general seats and 32 women seats, totalling 173; Sindh 61 general seats and 14 seats for women, totalling 75.

There would be three general seats for the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). In addition to the number of these general seats and the reserved seats for women, the notification said, there would be 10 more seats reserved for non-Muslims in the National Assembly.

Similarly, the ECP also shared details of the provincial assembly seats. The grand total of all the provincial assembly seats was 749, including 593 general seats, 132 reserved seats for women and 24 reserved seats for non-Muslims.

Balochistan would have 51 general seats, besides 11 women and 3 non-Muslim seats, totalling 65; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 115 general seats, plus 26 women and 4 non-Muslim seats, totalling 145; Punjab 297 general seats, 66 women and 8 non-Muslim seats, totalling 371; Sindh 130 general seats, 29 women and 9 non-Muslim seats, totalling 168.

According to the sources, the new delimitation removes all the legal impediments in the conduct of general elections in the country. They added that the Election Commission was now fully ready to hold the elections at any time.

The number of the constituencies started from NA-1 Chitral. Overall, the numbers of 231 present constituencies had been changed. The constituencies of Punjab started from NA 49 Attock, NA 190 Jacobabad was the first constituency in Sindh, and NA 251 Sherani of Balochistan.

The ECP said that the copy of the final delimitation of the constituency could be obtained from the Election Commission Secretariat Islamabad. It added that all the representations filed by the voters were placed on the ECP website along with their proposed maps which are accessible 24/7.