General elections will be held in Pakistan in January 2024, ECP announced

The Election Commission of Pakistan has announced to hold general elections in the last week of January 2024. In a statement issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan, it has been said that after reviewing the work on delimitation of constituencies, its preliminary list will be published on September 27. After that there will be elections in the country.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced on Thursday that general elections in Pakistan will be held in the last week of January 2024. The Election Commission issued a statement saying that it reviewed the delimitation of constituencies and decided that the preliminary list for delimitation of constituencies will be published on September 27.

The commission said that after listening to the objections and suggestions, the final list will be released on November 30. The Election Commission said that election campaigns will take place for 54 days. After that elections will be held in the last week of January 2024.

The announcement comes a day after the Election Commission of Pakistan said it had called for a meeting with various parties to discuss the code of conduct for the general elections.

Draft released for election campaign

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, a draft of the code of conduct has been shared with political parties to seek their feedback before finalizing the rules.

The draft code states that political parties, election candidates and election agents will not propagate any opinion. Independence of the judiciary of Pakistan, or which defames or ridicules any government institution, including the judiciary and the armed forces. Will not give any statement on this.

The ECP has ruled out elections this year citing the need for fresh delimitation of constituencies after the notification of the latest 2023 digital census.

Since the National Assembly was dissolved three days before the end of its constitutional term, Article 224 of the Constitution stated that elections were to be held by 7 November.

The President had demanded elections

Meanwhile, President Alvi had last month invited Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja for a meeting to “fix an appropriate date” for the general elections. In his letter to the CEC, the President cited Article 244 of the Constitution and said he is duty bound to hold elections within the prescribed period of 90 days in case of premature dissolution of the National Assembly.

But the recent amendment to the Election Act 2017 gave the ECP the power to announce election dates unilaterally without consulting the President. Citing this change in law, the CEC responded to the President saying that it would be of “minor importance” to attend a meeting with him to decide the election date.

Subsequently, the President sought advice from the Law Ministry on this matter and the Ministry told the President that the powers to announce the election date rested with the ECP. Earlier this month, the President wrote another letter to the CEC and proposed that the elections be held by November 6, citing constitutional requirements.