ECP denies delay in holding general elections

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Thursday strongly ruled out any possibility of postponement of the general elections and said the polls schedule will be issued after the final publication of delimitation report. The Election Commission’s Media Coordination and Outreach Wing issued a clarification, referring to media reports on the president’s interview to a private channel (Geo News) a day earlier, wherein he said he did not believe the elections would be held in January next year. 

“Due to the comments made by the Honorable President about the conduct of elections during an interview on a private channel on Wednesday, the impression has been given that the elections may be postponed. The Election Commission strongly denies this to dispel the impression that there is any possibility of postponement of the election,” it explained.

The commission clarified its position: “The first phase of delimitation has been completed and the second phase of filing objections will be completed on October 27, 2023. At the same time, the Election Commission will start hearing objections to the initial delimitation from October 30/31 and on November 30, 2023, the commission will publish the final list of constituencies.”

According to the action plan for the conduct of the election, the Election Commission emphasized: “All the preparations of the Election Commission are complete and the schedule of the elections will be announced after the final publication of the delimitation report. There is no ambiguity in it.”

Meanwhile, the Election Commission’s spokesman Haroon Shinwari said a day was left to submit objections to the facilitation desk set up in the Election Commission on the initial delimitation, which is the last opportunity. He noted the Election Commission has also issued guidelines to submit objections which can be submitted to the Election Commission Secretariat, Islamabad, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Meanwhile, as many as 55 students of the Law Department of the University of Sheringal, Upper Dir, visited the Election Commission Secretariat here and got a briefing on the election laws by Special Secretary Dr Syed Asif Hussain, Zafar Iqbal Hussain and other senior officers of the commission’s Law Wing.