LG Polls: ECP given some more time but…
The Supreme Court has succeeded in awakening the provincial governments to their long forgotten responsibility to hold the local government polls. The process has now been initiated though it is taking longer than initially conceived by the administration. All the four assemblies have got the relevant laws passed but have yet to complete the delimitation of constituencies, update the local government rules and laws and prepare the lists of polling stations. The Punjab Local Government law which envisaged holding the elections on non-party basis was amended through an ordinance when the LHC ordered the polls be held on party basis. The amendments now need to be passed by the provincial Assembly.
While the provinces were yet to complete the required formalities, the ECP announced the schedule for elections for Sindh and Punjab under pressure from the SC. Soon after the Commission discovered that it might not be possible to hold the polls on prescribed dates on account of technical difficulties. The most challenging task was the printing of around 500 million ballot papers. The government printing presses expressed inability to perform the task within weeks. Similarly the PCSIR maintained that 4.4 million magnetized ink pads could not be provided in less than four months. In case the elections are held without fulfilling the legal and procedural requirement, doubts are bound to be created about their fairness.
While the SC rejected the ECP’s appeal for more time, the NA passed two unanimous resolutions within a week asserting that elections in a hasty and non-transparent manner would undermine their credibility. The NA urged the Election Commission to fix a practical date for holding the elections after ensuring that all legal and administrative arrangements are in place. Fears were being expressed that the stands taken by the SC and NA might lead to confrontation between the two institutions. Thankfully this has not happened. The SC has granted a request of the Election Commission to hold the elections in accordance with a new schedule which stretches the election period to February which is however less than four months considered necessary for holding the polls.
Hopefully the provinces would work hard to do their bit of job while the ECP would act more efficiently than it has in the past.
