On Wednesday, Pakistani President Arif Alvi met with the country’s top electoral official to discuss scheduling general elections.
President Alvi sent a letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, explaining that he must set a date for general elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly (NA), as stipulated by the constitution.
After the dissolution of the National Assembly on August 9, elections must be held by the Election Commission of Pakistan within 90 days. However, delimitation in light of the new census is a constitutional mandate, hence the ECP is planning to postpone the election.
According to the letter posted on platform X through the President’s account, the President submitted a letter to CEC requesting a meeting “today or tomorrow to fix an appropriate date for general elections.”
According to Alvi, “the president is obliged to appoint a date not later than 90 days from the date of dissolution for the holding of general elections of [the] assembly” under Article 48(5) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Following the ECP’s announcement that a fresh delimitation process would be completed by December 14, the ECP has extended an invitation for a meeting.
The ECP is in a bind since it has two tasks it must complete: holding elections within 90 days and drawing up new voting districts.
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