Local elections in cantonments

The polling in cantonments indicates that ECP is eager to conduct the election as swiftly and efficiently as possible.

The long-awaited local body election process in the country finally seems to be moving forward, even if one step at a time. At a meeting in Islamabad, chaired by the acting Chief Election Commissioner Tassaduq Hussain, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the defence ministry have agreed that elections in cantonment boards across the country will be held on November 3. Military officials in charge of cantonments, defence ministry officials, provincial government officials and NADRA representatives attended the meeting. The Supreme Court, which had set a deadline of September 15 for the conduct of local bodies polls across the country is to be informed of the agreement reached and its permission sought for the delay. The ECP had already said that it would not be able to hold the local bodies polls by the middle of September because of logistical issues involved and its preoccupation with the recently completed by-polls in the country, which were the biggest such exercise in Pakistan’s history.

Though the exercise of the local bodies polls will for now be a limited one, it is good to see it is going ahead. The polling in cantonments indicates that the ECP is eager to conduct the election as swiftly and efficiently as possible. The setting up of local government bodies is, of course, an important step in the democratic cycle and one of immense significance to the lives of the people. The decision reached is one to be warmly welcomed. We must hope it can pave the way for local bodies polls outside the cantonment areas as well. The elections on November 3 are to be held in 42 of the 43 cantonment boards in the country. In the Ormara Board in Balochistan, census and delimitation matters need to be sorted out, clearing the way for what we hope will be the start of a process that can then continue till local governments have been duly voted in across the country, and that tier of governance put into motion.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2013.

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