Pakistan will hold the critical general election in the last week of January, 2024, the Election Commission of Pakistan announced on Thursday. The poll panel said that the seats’ delimitation has been reviewed and the decision has been taken to hold the general elections. The poll panel also said that the first list of the seats that will undergo the delimitation will be released on September 27 later this month.
According to a report by The Dawn, a prominent Pakistani daily, the final list would be released on November 30 after taking into consideration all the suggestions and objections if any. The general polls will be held in the last week of January, 2024. Around this time, the election campaign programme that is set to run for 54 days would conclude, the Dawn report quoted the ECP as saying.
The Election Commision of Pakistan has decided to alter the list of constituencies for the elections in accordance of new census data of Pakistan. The Election department will be delimiting the seats which has caused delayed in elections as constitutionally elections should be held within 90 days of government dissolution. The elections should have been scheduled in November instead of January as per the Pakistan Constitution.
Several political parties of Pakistan have showed distress towards delayed election dates and pressurising the ECP for shortening the delimitation process suspecting it could take more than 4 months for final list to publish. Currently the country is governed by the Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar who came in power after the dissolution of Pakistan Parliament on August 9, 2023. Caretaker PM Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has reassured to hold democratic process in Pakistan by holding general elections and it will not make any excuse to delay it.