Pakistan general election to be delayed by new census
File photo of Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif.
Pakistan's Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said on Saturday (August 5) that the general elections in the country, due later this year, will be based on a new census, indicating the vote could be delayed. Speaking to Geo News, Law Minister Tarar said it could take about four months to complete the census and draw new constituency boundaries.
Tarar said the decision was taken at a meeting of the Council of Common Interest, which included representatives from federal and provincial governments. "It was a consensus decision to hold elections under the new census," he added.
The minister's announcement has fuelled fears among opposition parties that a caretaker administration to be set up to oversee the vote could mean polling day is pushed back by months. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's tenure expires on August 12, and the caretaker government will take over from him to hold the elections in a maximum of three months. This would mean that the elections should ideally be held in November.
But the minister's announcement is an indication that the vote could be delayed.
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'...going to make things very complicated': Former poll body official
Speaking to the news agency Reuters on Saturday, Kunwar Dilshad,a former top official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP),said that the law minister's announcement would mean that the elections due by November at the latest could be delayed by several months.
"It is going to make things very complicated," Dilshad said, adding the new census means new constituency boundaries will be needed across the country. The former ECP official also said that it is not possible to complete that process and hold the election within the constitutionally required deadline, meaning the election cannot be held before February next year.
At present, the census shows that Pakistan's population has risen to 241.49 million. However, new constituency boundaries must be drawn up. Prime Minister Sharif proposed dissolving parliament on August 9, three days before his term expires.
This would mean the ECP has 90 days to hold the vote against 60 days if parliament were dissolved on August 12 at the end of its full five-year term.
(With inputs from agencies)
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