NewsOctober 20 , 2017
Timely general elections almost impossible
ISLAMABAD: In the backdrop of census 2017, early general elections are almost impossible, unless the provinces as well as the political parties agree to hold the next polls on the basis of 1998 census. In the present situation, even on-time elections are seriously feared to get delayed, unless parliament through a fresh legislation notifies the provisional results of the 2017 population census as soon as possible.The census 2017 is expected to increase the National Assembly seats in case of KP, Balochistan and Islamabad Capital Territory. The Sindh’s position will remain unchanged whereas Punjab will lose 3% of the NA seats.
The PTI demands early elections ignoring the recent Election Commission of Pakistan’s warning for issuance of immediate notification of the provisional result of the 2017 population census to ensure holding of general elections mid next year. To hold election on schedule, the ECP has to complete the delimitation and re-allocation of NA seats among the provinces.
Following the ECP request, the federal cabinet on Wednesday (Oct 18) reportedly endorsed the proposal to go ahead with the delimitation of election constituencies on the basis of provisional census data but no final decision was taken regarding re-allocation of NA seats on the basis of new census results.
As a consequence of the delimitation, the ECP has to re-allocate the NA seats among the provinces on the basis of 2017 census. Thus both the delimitation and the re-allocation process has to be completed by March 2018 to hold elections on schedule, otherwise the next polls are bound to be delayed.
Because of the 2017 Census, the situation is such that the early elections are simply not possible, whereas holding polls on schedule also seems doubtful unless the government and parliament immediately do what the ECP requires of them.
In a recent letter written to the Law Ministry by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the ECP has requested for early legislation to this affect to avoid delay. The Constitution requires allocation of National Assembly and provincial assemblies seats to the provinces and other regions in accordance with “last preceding census officially published”. Though the provisional result of the 2017 Census has been made public, yet the final result of the census will be officially announced in April next year.
This situation leaves two options for the ECP. Either the next elections should be held on the basis of the 1988 census or the ECP should wait for the official results of the 2017 census for re-allocation of National Assembly seats. The ECP official fears that it is highly unlikely that the political parties and provincial authorities will agree to hold the 2018 elections on the basis of 1998 census as the 2017 census’s provisional result have already been announced. Regarding the option of waiting for the official results of the 2017 census, it would be impossible for the Election Commission of Pakistan to complete the re-allocation of NA seats on the basis of the latest census and also hold the elections in time.
In view of this situation, the ECP has come up with the suggestion of introducing a new law by which the provisional result of the 2017 census should be officially announced as soon as possible so that the NA seats are timely re-allocated between the provinces and other regions on the basis of the latest census.
On 29th August, the ECP had written a letter to the Law Ministry on the same subject. Through this communication, the Law Ministry’s attention was drawn to Article 51(5) of the Constitution which provides that the seats in the National Assembly shall be allocated to each province, the Fata and the Federal Capital on the basis of population in accordance with the last preceding census results officially published.
As reported earlier by this newspaper, the ECP secretary told the Law Ministry: “In the backdrop of 6th National Census, held from March-May 2017 in the country, I may state that as per provisional results shared by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics with regard to census, tangible demographic changes have taken place in the federating units which might necessitate the enhancement, reallocation of seats in the National Assembly as well as provincial assemblies by the Parliament. In the event of such enhancement and reallocation of seats, the Election Commission of Pakistan has to carry out delimitation in accordance with the provisions of Chapter-III of the Elections Act 2017 (as passed by the National Assembly on 22nd August, 2017). Needless to mention that section 17(2) requires the Commission to delimit constituencies after every census officially published.”
The ECP letter added, “Keeping in view the importance, magnitude of work and the time period required for completion of different stages of delimitation of constituencies, it is apprehended that in case of delay in official publication of census results, timely completion of delimitation exercise could not be possible. Hence, the Hon’ble Commission has desired me to request you to kindly take all necessary legal, administrative measures for said legislation and early official publication of census results so that the commission could be able to accomplish its constitutional and legal obligations in time and in an efficient manner.”
Courtesy www.thenews.com.pk
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