ECP disappointed over Islamabad LG polls delay

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan Wednesday expressed disappointment over the failure to hold local government elections in the federal capital, after the term of last set-up had ended in February 2021.

Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja presided over a meeting of the Election Commission here, which emphasized that the electoral body has already conducted delimitation of constituencies four times and that whenever it completes preparations for the electoral exercise, amendments are made to the laws.

In the face of this situation, the Election Commission has now decided that work of delimitation should be started as per the amended Local Government Act 2015. The forum has ordered the office to immediately make necessary arrangements accordingly and submit the delimitation schedule to the Election Commission for approval.

Polls in the Islamabad Capital Territory have been overdue since February 2021. Various reasons are attributed to the delay in holding of polls while the number of registered voters in the federal capital has increased to 1,154,471.

Initially, the number of union councils was increased from 50 to 101, keeping in view Islamabad’s population according to the 2017 census. Again, on December 23, 2022, the parliament passed a bill that increased the number of UCs from 101 to 125. A few days later, the Election Commission held a meeting and decided to postpone the elections, as the increase in number of UCs necessitated the conduct of fresh delimitations and a redo of the whole election process, which needed four months.

On December 30, 2022, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) accepted identical petitions filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamaat-e-Islami and set aside the ECP’s order of postponement of elections. The IHC directed it to hold the elections according to schedule on December 31, 2022. However, elections could not be held. The Election Commission took the position that it was practically impossible to hold the elections on such short notice and subsequently filed an intra-court appeal against the IHC’s decision.

Side by side, the PTI filed a petition in the IHC seeking contempt of court proceedings against the ECP for not holding the elections. In February 2023, the IHC sought a fresh schedule for the elections from the ECP after parliament increased the number of UCs from 101 to 125 while the first-ever digital census was conducted in 2023.

The Election Commission held a meeting on August 2 to decide the date of elections and in a notification on August 8, 2024, the ECP published a schedule for the local government elections, with the polling date set for September 29, 2024. However, on 20 August, the ECP changed the polling date to 9 October. But the poll exercise is yet to be carried out, as fresh amendments have been made to the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act.