ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has agreed to another postponement of the Local Government elections that were scheduled to take place in Karachi on Sunday, October 23.

Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja presided over the meeting in which the decision to defer the elections.

The Sindh government had requested the delay citing manpower shortage as personnel were engaged in relief efforts in the wake of unprecedented floods.

In its latest request to defer the election, the Sindh government stated that an estimated 5,000 polling stations had to be set up. Of those, around 1,305 had been categorised as “most sensitive” and 3,688 others as “sensitive”.

In terms of manpower, the request said that the provincial government would need 39,293 police personnel for deployment at polling stations and other duties. It added that Karachi police had 22,507 police personnel available, with a deficit of 16,786 policemen.

It said that the provincial government had planned to arrange police personnel from other districts to fill the gap.

The interior ministry had also written to the ECP suggesting a posponement on the pretext that it could not provide adequate security to the staff due to ongoing relief efforts.

The ECP is scheduled to meet again after two weeks to review the situation

The first phase of LG polls in 14 districts of four out of six divisions of Sindh took place on June 26, with PPP sweeping to victory.

The second phase of polling in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions was initially schedulede for July 24. It was deferred over the heavy forecast of rains and moved forward to August 28.

However, it was delayed again as Pakistan in general and Sindh in particular dealt with the fallout of the floods that affected 33 million people.