The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has recently revealed that the general elections in Pakistan will take place in the last week of January 2024. While the exact date has not been specified, this timeline goes beyond the November 6 cutoff date suggested by President Arif Alvi by more than two months.
According to the ECP statement, the commission has been reviewing the process of delimiting constituencies. It plans to release the initial list of delimitation on September 27. After considering objections and suggestions, the final list will be issued on November 30. Once the 54-day election campaign program is completed, the polls will be held in the last week of January.
The announcement of the election schedule had an immediate impact on Pakistan’s dollar-denominated government bonds, which slipped by as much as 1 cent. It is widely expected that the country will require long-term support from the International Monetary Fund following the elections due to its funding crunch.
This announcement follows the ECP’s decision to hold a meeting with political parties next month to discuss the code of conduct for the general elections. The draft code of conduct has already been shared with political parties for their feedback. It emphasizes that political parties, candidates, and election agents should not propagate any opinion or act in a manner prejudicial to the ideology, sovereignty, integrity, or security of Pakistan. It also prohibits any defamatory statements against government institutions, including the judiciary and the armed forces.
The ECP had initially ruled out holding elections this year due to the need for fresh delimitation of constituencies after the notification of the latest digital census in 2023. However, Article 224 of the Constitution mandates holding elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly, which occurred three days before the end of its constitutional term.
During consultations with the ECP, political parties expressed varying opinions on the timing for elections, with some highlighting the need for fresh delimitation and others, such as the PTI and PPP, calling for elections within the constitutional time frame.
President Alvi invited the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja for a meeting to decide the appropriate date for the general elections. However, an amendment to the Elections Act in 2017 now grants the ECP the power to unilaterally announce the election dates without consulting the president.
As a result, the CEC informed the president that a meeting to decide the election date would be of “scant importance.” This led the president to seek advice from the law ministry, which confirmed that the ECP has the authority to announce the polling date.
Although the president recently suggested holding elections by November 6, experts believe that this letter was merely a suggestion and not an official declaration of the election date.
With the ECP’s recent announcement, Pakistan is now gearing up for the general elections in January, which will be a crucial milestone in the country’s political landscape.
[Additional input from Reuters]