What is delimitations process before general elections?

The general elections are likely to be delayed for a few more months after the Council of Common Interests (CCI) unanimously approved the 2023 population census on Saturday. 

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will now delimit electoral constituencies afresh after the approval of the headcount. 

Let's take a look at the delimitations process:

Firstly, the delimitation committees are established for all provinces including Islamabad. The National Assembly (NA) has 266 constituencies while the provincial assemblies have 593 constituencies.

Once the electoral body announces the schedule for the delimitations of the constituencies, no new administrative units can be formed.

Following the announcement of the schedule, the administrative arrangements are completed within 15 days and the relevant revenue department is requested to provide essential data and maps of the tehsils and districts.

Data including the district census report and the block size is provided to the data committee and the constituency committee is trained within five days. During this time, the committees receive the district quota of provincial and National Assembly seats.

The delimitation committees complete the initial work within 30 days after which the initial report of the delimitations is published in four days.

After that, the objections regarding the initial delimitations are submitted to the Election Commission for 30 days. Then the ECP takes 30 days to hear the complaints and make a decision.

After dealing with the complaints, the final report on the delimitations is published in the next three to four days.

The delimitation process takes roughly four months after the announcement of the schedule.

The country is divided into constituencies on the basis of population and geography for the delimitation process. Meanwhile, the population difference in any constituency should not be more than 10%.

After the delimitation process, the ECP completes the voter lists and seals them. Following this, the schedule for the elections is announced.

The latest digital census conducted in 2023 shows that Pakistan’s population has surged to 241.49 million with a growth rate of 2.55%.