Who will decide when Pakistan votes?

By Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s president and its election commission are at odds over who has the authority to set the date for the next general elections, adding to the uncertainty over the timing of the polls that are due in November.

President Arif Alvi wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja on Wednesday, inviting him to a meeting to fix an “appropriate” date for the elections. Alvi said he was obligated to do so under the constitution, which requires him to determine a date for polls within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly.

But Raja rejected the invitation, saying the power to appoint a date for elections rests with the commission, according to a statement issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday.

He cited amendments to the Election Act 2017 that were passed by the outgoing government of former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in June, which gave the ECP the sole authority to announce the date for polls.

The dispute comes amid growing speculation that the elections will be delayed beyond the 90-day constitutional limit, which expires on November 7.

The ECP has said it needs more time to redraw hundreds of federal and provincial constituencies based on the results of a new population census that was approved by Sharif’s government days before it dissolved the assemblies on August 9 and handed over power to a caretaker administration.

The ECP has said it will finalize the fresh delimitation of constituencies by December 14, effectively pushing back the elections by more than a month.

Legal experts say there are loopholes in the laws that have created room for disagreement between the president and the election regulator over who has the authority to fix the date for polls.

“It was mala fide on the part of the outgoing Sharif’s coalition government to get controversial amendments passed in the Elections Act to empower the election commission for fixing the date for polls,” Justice (retired) Nasira Iqbal, a prominent legal expert, said. “The purpose is to delay elections beyond the 90-day constitutional limit either on one pretext or the other, so the election commission is doing it.”

The commission, meanwhile, held meetings with Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), for consultations on the electoral roadmap to hold transparent polls “as soon as possible” and provide a level playing field for all political parties.

“We have told the Election Commission that we want elections within the ambit of the constitution. We want free and fair elections,” Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, a senior JUI-F leader, told reporters after the meeting.

He said his party wanted to avoid a repeat of the 2018 general elections, which he called “the worst elections in the history of the country” and accused of being rigged in favour of PTI.

Barrister Ali Zafar, a PTI leader, said his party would extend full support for free and fair elections in 90 days.

He said delimitation could only take place after articles 51 and 106 of the constitution have been amended to re-determine the number of National Assembly seats allocated to the provinces and the federal capital.

Zafar said the election commission does not have the power to decide the constituencies at present. He also questioned the validity of the approval of the census results by the Council of Common Interests (CCI), a constitutional body that includes representatives of all provinces and the federal government.

“During the CCI’s meeting, two chief ministers were caretakers and their decision in relation to approval of the census results is not acceptable.”