It is a constitutional requirement for the local government elections to be held timely—according to the Elections Act 2017, new elections must be held within 120 days of the expiry of the tenure of the last local government. Unfortunately, local government elections have been rare and consistently delayed in Pakistan’s history. Even with the strengthening of democratic processes in the last few years, there have been several challenges in holding local government elections on time. A consistent hurdle in Sindh, for example, has been the issue of delimitation.
However, a significant development in expediting the process took place when the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government passed amendments to the local government law, the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013. PPP has used its objections to the 2017 Census, and the impact it has on delimitation, as a constant excuse to delay the local government elections.
The provincial PPP government in Sindh, despite reminders from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), did not provide requisite data nor made amendments to the law on the pretext that it had reservations on the official result of the 2017 census. Only after the ECP issued a final deadline to the Sindh government to provide data for holding elections in the province, did the government pass the highly contested and controversial amendments.
The amendment might have brought forth the wrath of the opposition parties in Sindh, but it can be said that, finally, the local government elections are in sight, rather than being indefinitely delayed. The ECP is set to start from Friday the delimitation process, is likely to be completed in March of 2022, after which finally the elections can be held, almost two years since the last local government’s tenure ended.
It is a relief that the necessary process for delimitation has started. Now all stakeholders should oversee this process, which always gives rise to controversies and objections by all political parties involved, carefully but expeditiously.
