Local govt elections: No polls possible before March, ECP to tell top court

Fresh delimitation stalled in Sindh, Punjab

ISLAMABAD:

Election officials are expected to tell the Supreme Court on Monday that it won’t be possible to hold local government (LG) elections before mid-March or early April next year.

The apex court, which is hearing a case regarding the state for preparedness for organising LG polls in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Punjab and Sindh, had set a November 15 deadline for these provinces and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Save for Balochistan, where LG elections were held last December under pressure from the Supreme Court, polls have been due in the rest of the country since 2009 despite the lapse of several court-ordered deadlines. But even in Balochistan the LG system has yet to be made functional.

Status in K-P

While Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf says it is ready to hold LG polls in the K-P, ECP says it has been informed by officials from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) and other allied departments that arranging the required materials for the exercise will take between three to four months once a formal order is given.

Under the law, provincial governments, after completing all pre-requisites, have to send ECP a formal request to organise the LG polls. Neither one among K-P, Punjab and Sindh has sent such a request thus far.

Talking to The Express Tribune, ECP officials said that compared to Punjab and Sindh, K-P was better positioned to hold the polls since delimitation exercises in the province had been declared valid by the court. The electoral process K-P wants, however, is much more complicated than the other provinces, they added.

K-P’s LG laws describe seven categories of seats for tehsil and district councils, as opposed to four in Punjab and Sindh. Each of these categories require ballot papers printed in a separate, distinct colour. The province has also asked for biometric voter verification for its LG elections.

According to ECP officials, PCP has informed the commission that since ballots are printed on a specialised paper unavailable in the market to avoid the printing of fakes, it needs at least three months to procure required materials and print ballot papers in all seven colours.

Fresh delimitation needed in Sindh, Punjab

The situation in Sindh and Punjab is grimmer than K-P. Both provinces need to carry out fresh delimitations after their respective high courts declared earlier such exercises invalid. Following complaints from opposition parties, the Sindh and Lahore high courts ordered that delimitation be carried out by ECP to ensure impartiality.

The ECP had to complete the delimitation process within 45 days. Before the commission can do so in Sindh and Punjab, however, the two provinces need to amend their LG laws – under the 18th constitutional amendment.

After the top court took up the matter this month, Punjab and Sindh informed it that they were working on the required legislation. ECP officials said they were waiting for these provinces provide it with copies of the legislation.

An official from ECP’s legal wing told The Express Tribune that the commission also believes 45 days will be insufficient to conduct delimitations. He said the commission would request the court to provide it between four to six months.

LG elections, according to officials, require more extensive work than national elections due to the larger number of constituencies and candidates.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2014.