Delimitation of constituencies to be completed by May 3: ECP

 

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan Secretary Babar Yaqoob on Friday announced that the delimitation of constituencies will be completed by May 3, 2018. 

While speaks to media after an emergency session of the ECP at the federal capital, he said that the ECP will complete its arrangements for the next general elections by May 3, adding that in the session today five delimitation committees have been set up.   

The ECP official declined to give the date for the next general polls.

"We have set 45 days for the proposals of delimitation," Babar Yaqoob said. 

Yaqoob said that in today's session, the ECP  summoned constituency maps from the provincial government for its next session.  The ECP  directed provincial governments to install CCTV cameras in the sensitive polling stations. 

The ECP has summoned constituency maps from the provincial governments by January 10. 

All the provincial election commissioners, chief secretaries, along with Secretary Pakistan Board of Statistics and Chairman National Database and Registration Authority attended the meeting today.

 On December 19, the Senate passed the amendment bill on the delimitation of constituencies with a two-thirds majority, clearing the hurdle for the ECP to hold next year’s general elections on time.

The amendment bill remained stuck in the Senate after its passage from the National Assembly last month, as the majority opposition party in the House, PPP, had expressed its reservations on the provisional results of the population census and demanded a third-party validation of 5 per cent blocks.

All majority parties voted in support of the constitutional amendment except for the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), which voted against it.