Pakistan The Election Commission of India (ECP) announced on Thursday that general elections in the country will be held in the last week of January 2024. Pakistan’s political parties, which are facing cash crunch, were continuously pressurizing them to hold elections on time, after which the Commission has made this announcement.
Election program will be announced at the end of the year
The Election Commission of Pakistan said that it has reviewed the delimitation work of constituencies and the preliminary list of delimited constituencies will be released on September 27. The Commission said that political parties can lodge objections on the initial list, after which it will consider all the objections and suggestions. The Commission said that after considering the objections and suggestions regarding the list, the final list will be released on November 30 and after that the election schedule will be announced. The Election Commission said that after the completion of the delimitation process, the Commission will announce the election schedule of 54 days and ‘the voting process will be completed in the last week of January 2024.
Law to hold general elections in Pakistan within 90 days of dissolution of the National Assembly
Pakistan Under US law, general elections must be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly, which was dissolved on August 9. However, due to the new census conducted this year, it became mandatory for the Election Commission to start the process of delimitation. The previous government had announced just a few days before the completion of its term that after the arrival of the new census report, the constituencies would be delimited on its basis and after that general elections would be held. Since then, apprehensions were being raised that the deadline for holding elections within 90 days of dissolution of the National Assembly would not be complied with and the elections would be held till next year because the process of delimitation takes four months.
Election Commission decided to complete the delimitation process in less time than stipulated time.
Amidst the pressure being put on the ECP by various political parties to conduct elections on time, the Commission decided to conduct the delimitation process in less time than the stipulated time. Under the Constitution of Pakistan, the Election Commission has to complete the work of delimitation within a period of 120 days.
At present, a caretaker government is ruling Pakistan.
At present, a caretaker government is ruling Pakistan and after the elections, it will take over the reins of the country until a new Prime Minister is elected. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar said that the interim government is committed to maintaining the democratic process in Pakistan by holding general elections and it will not make any excuses in this regard.
Imran Khan’s party had demanded voting on November 6.
President Arif Alvi, a founding member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the party of deposed Prime Minister and jailed Imran Khan in a corruption case, had earlier this month written a letter to the ECP, unilaterally proposing to hold voting on November 6. But the apex election body had refused to comment on this.