Poll delay: PM adds grist to rumour mill

Shehbaz calls for holding polls under new census

LAHORE:

 

The fate of the elections appeared to be hanging in balance once again on Tuesday as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared that they would be held on the basis of the 2023 digital census -- raising the spectre of political deadlock and delay in the polls.

Speaking to a private television channel, the prime minister appeared to be deviating from his party’s previous stance -- an abrupt change in position that caught the coalition parties off-guard -- and potentially sowed the seeds of confusion and contention among the coalition parties with the inconsistent messaging.

“We have to hold the elections on the basis of the new census … When a census has been conducted, the [polls] should be held on its basis unless there is an obstacle that cannot be overcome. But I don’t see [any such hurdle],” PM Shehbaz said.

However, waiting for a digital census would, in other words, mean postponing the elections as the delimitation under the new digital census would require four months.

The PPP -- the major ally of the ruling PML-N -- has already made it clear that they would not endorse any decision that results in delaying elections.

Amid rumours about the caretaker setup being brought in for a longer stretch of time that would function beyond 90 days, and with financial empowerment of the interim setup seen as part of that scheme, the recent revelations by the premier only provide credence to suspicions of inordinate delay in elections.

PM in the interview also said that since the census has been held, so the elections must be held according to them, and that the CCI meeting will be called once digit census results were complied with.

To a question regarding this decision leading to a delay, he reminded that it was the responsibility of the ECP and reiterated that there was no reason for any delay in elections.

However, the decision might assuage MQM’s concerns that had openly opposed the government’s decision of going for election on the old census but the PPP, whose leaders have already opposed elections according to a new digital census on accounts of delay that delimitation process would cause to timely elections, might take an exception to this.

The PPP, according to its leaders was against this decision and claimed that the final decision would be taken by the Central Executive Committee meeting of the party.

In an interview earlier, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had claimed that the government would not notify the digital census and that elections would be held accordingly. The same position was iterated by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal.

However, this ruffled the MQM’s feathers that had opposed the government’s position claiming that the move would deprive millions of their voting rights. The PM later held meetings with MQM leaders to assure that the decision announced by the two federal ministers was not the government’s official position.

Earlier talking to The Express Tribune, MQM leader Mustafa Kamal said that during a meeting with the PM, they had taken this matter up, and in one of the meetings even Ahsan Iqbal was present who informed him and the MQM delegation that he had issued a clarification about it the very next day but it was not flashed the way his earlier statement did.

Mustafa said that they wanted elections to be held according to the new census, but clarified in their pursuit of demoing election under the new census, that they would create any impediment in timely polls. Mustafa then said that if ECP expedients the process of delimitation, it would complete in three months’ time and even if it take a few days or a few weeks longer, there was no harm in it.
PPP senior leader Nawab Muhammad Yousaf Talpur talking to The Express Tribune said that they have already taken a position on the subject that fresh delimitation would cause delay in holding general elections and given this reason they oppose it.

However, he said that they believe that if it was not for the fact that the basic principle of the census was not properly adhered to and that it would cause a delay in elections, they too would have supported the election under the new census. He however said that his party would take a final decision in the CEC meeting.

Information Secretary PPP Faisal Kareem Kundi had earlier told The Express Tribune said that fresh delimitation would in theory require four months, but in reality, it might take as long as eight months or a year.

Ahsan Iqbal and Faisal Kareem Kundi when contacted were not available for comments. Qamar Zaman Kaira when asked said that in the backdrop of this new position taken by the PM, he would have waited for the party to take an official position on the issue.