The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday in a letter to President Arif Alvi said that it requires a minimum of four months for the delimitation of constituences, meaninig that would be able to hold transparent elections in the country in October this year.

In its response to the president regarding holding the elections within the time period 90 days of it being called as required by the constitution, the ECP said that delimitation is an important process and that it was not possible to hold the election without completing it.

Earlier, the president in a letter to the ECP had asked to propose dates for holding general elections under Article 224(2) of the Constitution.

The letter further stated that under Article 48(5)(A) and Article 224(2) of the Constitution, the president had to fix a date, not later than 90 days from the date of dissolution of the National Assembly, for holding general elections.

ECP blames PTI-led govt for delay in delimitation process

Blaming the PTI-led government for the delay, the ECP in its response to the president's letter said that despite sending 12 letters to the government the delimitation process was not completed in due time.

"The Election Commission though fully committed to hold elections, would however require four additional months to complete the exercise of delimitation," read the letter.

Meanwhile, Dawn News citing ECP sources reported that ground realities will have to be kept in view while setting a poll date, pointing out that under section 17(1) of the Elections Act, 2017, the ECP was responsible to delimit territorial constituencies for elections to the National Assembly, each provincial assembly and local governments in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, the Act, the rules and the applicable local government law.

Section 17(2) of the Act reads, “the commission shall delimit constituencies after every census is officially published,” it added.

The ECP stated that it had written multiple letters to the government, prime minister and Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and other related departments, repeatedly reminding them that delimitation was the constitutional responsibility of the ECP and it could not be started until the census was notified.

The process of delimitation finally started when the official census results were notified on May 7, 2021, but it was stopped after the government announced that it would go for the fresh digital census, the ECP said, adding that the commission had also written letters to the government on Dec 30, 2021, and January 21, 2022, urging it to expedite the census process, which it did not do.