Local government: Election commission to unveil poll schedule next month

Elections in K-P held up as provincial govt insists on one voting day.

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will submit a tentative schedule for by-elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), Punjab and Sindh before the Supreme Court on February 12, as the apex court is set to take up the issue again.

Sources in the ECP told The Express Tribune that the commission is working on tentative dates for the local government (LG) polls in these provinces and will submit options to the Supreme Court in order to build pressure on the provinces and get them to fulfill their constitutional obligation.

Unlike Balochistan – which wound up its elections late this month– the other three provinces haven’t been able to conduct polls since 2009 when the last LG system expired.

“We are deliberating carefully on the possible dates for polls and would convey that to the Supreme Court,” an official in the ECP said.

The ECP plans to announce the schedule for polls in K-P by the first week of April and plans to hold polls in the province in May. The tentative schedule is being discussed with the provincial government, the official said, adding that the only remaining hitch is the K-P government’s insistence to go for polls on the same day across the province.

The ECP has proposed that the provincial government hold polls in phases, citing security and logistical issues since, according to ECP officials, the holding of LG polls is a bigger exercise than the general elections. “This is not a big issue. Hopefully it will be resolved in the next meeting,” the official said. However, he did not know the date for the next meeting.

ECP officials claim that almost all pre-requisites for going to polls are complete in K-P. However, Punjab and Sindh are still dragging their feet on the issue and both provinces have yet to provide the ECP with full data regarding delimitations carried out in 2013 which were scrapped by the courts.

“The ECP will submit a schedule contingent to the timeframe for fresh delimitations,” officials said. ECP officials said they plan to start delimitations in mid-February and the process will take around four months. “It takes another two to four months to hold polls once the delimitation process culminates. We would fix a tentative date for polls accordingly,” officials said.

Islamabad and cantonments

The federal capital and cantonments are also lagging when it comes to having any local governments. Parliament has to pass local government laws here and proposed legislation for the LG system in Islamabad and cantonment have been pending with the National Assembly’s standing committee since last year.

Once a local government system is adopted by the legislature, the rules are framed accordingly and delimitations are carried out before elections are held.  The PML-N government has yet to complete the first step in the process - LG laws for Islamabad and cantonment areas.

After the 18th Amendment passed in 2010, the subject of local governments was devolved to provinces which are empowered to adopt any system of their choice for local governments.  They were empowered to frame subsequent rules and conduct delimitations.

The ECP’s role was limited to just supervising the polls.  However, opposition parties in Punjab and Sindh accused the provincial governments of what they called biased marking of boundaries for LG constituencies to benefit the ruling parties.

Opposition parties challenged the delimitations in the respective high courts in these provinces. The superior judiciary decided the cases in favour of petitioners and directed that the ECP should hold delimitations in these provinces.  The courts also directed Punjab and Sindh to make changes in their legislation to empower the ECP to conduct delimitations. It took both provinces months to do so.

Officials in the elections wing of the ECP claim that it has been well over a year since they have asked the provincial administration to hand over maps and other data of delimitations necessary to kick off a fresh delimitation exercise.

In case their data and documents are not received by next week, the ECP will plead with the SC to take action against the provincial governments for not following the orders of the country’s highest court.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2015.