ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has turned down a request from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government, seeking delay of 180 days in the conduct of delimitation of its 24 districts for the upcoming local government (LG) polls.
The KP chief secretary, according to sources, had written to the electoral body in this connection recently and delay was sought on the plea of the provincial government’s plan to amend the local government structure and the Local Government Act, 2013.
He also came up with an argument that the Election Commission had not consulted the provincial government before starting the delimitation process. In addition, bad weather and law and order situation in some districts were also cited as reasons.
Sources noted that the electoral body deliberated upon the letter and stressed that the Election Commission is bound to conduct delimitation and local government elections in accordance with the prevailing provincial local government laws and rules under Article 140-A, Article 222(6), Sections 17, 219 and 221 of the Elections Act, 2013. Moreover, it was underlined that consultation with the provincial government is not necessary for delimitation under the Constitution and the law. It was maintained that the provincial government has the power to make legislation and amendments, however, the Election Commission cannot be bound to stop the delimitation process under the existing local government laws on the basis of the mere desire to make legislation or amendments.
It was pointed out that the KP Local Government Act 2013 and the Local Government Rules 2021 are in force, according to which the Election Commission has completed the initial delimitation of 23 districts and its publication was done on March 5, 2026.
Rejecting outright the provincial government’s request, the ECP said that since 2024, the Commission had been continuously convincing the provincial government that if amendments were required to the local government laws, then these should be made in a timely manner, but the provincial government had not taken any action in this regard.
It was concluded that now the Election Commission has completed the delimitation process in 23 districts, whereas the initial publication of which was done on March 5, 2026. At this stage, the process of receiving objections to the initial delimitation is underway to ensure timely holding of delimitation and local government elections in the province.
Last time, the LG polls in the province were held in two phases while the term of LG institutions is four years.
