ECP defends move to delay polls beyond 90-day limit
• Asserts fresh electoral rolls, delimitation are constitutional requirements, foregoing them would deprive voters of ‘true representation’
• Says substantial changes have occurred in population of provinces, constituencies
ISLAMABAD: Just a day after announcing a delimitation schedule that all but confirmed that polls would be delayed for longer than the stipulated 90-day period, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) defended its move, saying the exercise was a constitutional requirement for holding polls, and that without fresh delimitation of constituencies and updated electoral rolls, voters will not have true representation in parliament.
The ECP expects to complete the process of fresh delimitation of national and provincial assembly constituencies by December 14 — over a month beyond the constitutionally-mandated deadline for conducting general elections in the country.
The commission has held that carrying out fresh delimitation of constituencies prior to ensuing general polls on the basis of the last preceding census officially published in 2023 was a mandatory requirement of law.
In a written order on the question of delimitation after official notification of the census results, it said that fresh delimitation of constituencies was essential to ensure the fulfilment of duty under Article 218(3) of the Constitution, and for the true representation to the electorate, political parties and contesting candidates to protect their fundamental rights as guaranteed under Article 17(2) of the Constitution so that elections are conducted “honestly, justly and fairly”.
The order, a copy of which is available with Dawn, says that Section 17(2) of the Elections Act, 2017, provides that the commission shall delimit constituencies after every census officially published.
It says in order to resolve the issue of fresh delimitation before ensuing general elections, the commission considered the provisions of the articles 17, 218(3), 219, 222(b), 224(2), 254 of the Constitution and Section 17(2) of the Elections Act, 2017, and the judgements of the Supreme Court including the one in Federation of Pakistan versus Haji Muhammad Saifullah Khan case reported in PLD 1989, SC-166.
The order says the arrangements mentioned in Article 218(3) were not limited to the appointment of DROs, ROs, AROs, printing of ballot papers, but also include preparation of updated electoral rolls in terms of Article 2l9(a) and delimitation of constituencies.
It says as a consequence of population census officially published, substantial changes in the population in the provinces and constituencies at district level have occurred. The commission states that Clause (a) of Article 219 of the Constitution casts duty upon the commission to prepare electoral rolls for election to the National Assembly, provincial assembly and local governments and to revise such rolls periodically to keep them up-to-date.
It further says that after the publication of seventh population census, approximately 20,805 census blocks have increased, some have been merged while others have split, for which revision/update of the electoral rolls was necessary to adjust the registered voters in accordance with census charges, circles and blocks according to census 2023.
Provision of true representation to the electorate is one of constitutional duties of the Commission in terms of Article 218(3) and bedrock of the parliamentary democracy and apart from being the fundamental right of the contesting candidates, political parties and electorate in terms of Article 7(2) of the Constitution.
It says the Supreme Court in the cases of Benazir Bhutto versus Federation of Pakistan and Ch. Nasir Iqbal versus Federation of Pakistan held that right to vote, right to contest election and right to form a political party were fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
“Without fresh delimitation of constituencies, and updated electoral rolls, none of the voters of constituencies, contesting candidates and political parties will have true representation in the parliament and provincial assemblies which is the fundamental principle of constitutional democracy as envisaged by the Constitution,” it says.
The order says different provisions of the Constitution were to be read together, reconciled and harmonised to give a meaningful interpretation of the Constitution. It adds the delimitation of constituencies and updated and error-free electoral rolls after each population census officially published were prerequisites for elections.
Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2023