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Friday March 29, 2024

Elections not possible before Oct 2022, ECP tells President Arif Alvi

Chief election commissioner says that at least seven months are required to hold free, fair, and transparent polls in country

By Nausheen Yusuf
April 07, 2022
Elections not possible before Oct 2022, ECP tells President Arif Alvi

ISLAMABAD: In response to President Arif Alvi letter about finalising a date for new national polls in the country, the Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday said that general elections are not possible before October this year.

In a letter to the president, the chief election commissioner said that seven months are required to hold free, fair, and transparent polls in the country.

The ECP needed four months to complete the delimitations, in addition, to organize general elections in 90 days, read the letter.

President Alvi asks ECP to fix election date

A day earlier, President Arif Alvi instructed the ECP to finalise a date for new national polls, as the Supreme Court had adjourned a hearing into the legality of political manoeuvres that led to the dissolution of the Parliament.

The court — which will sit for a fourth day Thursday — must rule if the deputy speaker of the national assembly violated the Constitution by refusing to allow a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan last weekend.

Had the vote taken place, Khan was certain to have been booted from office, but the move allowed him to get the loyalist president to dissolve the Parliament and order an early election.

The Opposition had cried foul and was refusing to cooperate in forming an interim government to oversee any ballot, but on Wednesday, Alvi upped the ante.

A statement from his office said the election commission had been told to propose a date "in order to carry out the mandate of the Constitution".