ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s election regulatory body said on Monday it could hold general elections in the country in October, after the exercise of delimitating constituencies and preparing voter lists was completed as per the Election Act, 2017.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party of ousted ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan has been holding rallies across the country, calling for fresh elections. Khan was ousted in a vote of no-confidence in April and has refused to accept the new government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
General elections are due in Pakistan in August 2023, but the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said in April it needed until at least October to complete requirements. It plans to publish a final voter list by August 12.
“The delimitation of the constituencies would be complete in August, and the election commission would be ready to hold fresh polls in October,” ECP Secretary Omar Hamid Khan said at a press conference in Islamabad on Monday.
Last month, the ECP published a draft of the delimitation of national and provincial assembly constituencies and voter lists, and displayed them across the country for public scrutiny.
Responding to complaints by citizens that their votes had been transferred to new areas and polling stations changed, Khan said the election commission had launched a door-to-door campaign in 2019 to verify voters and transfer their votes to their permanent or temporary addresses, according to their national identity cards.
During the verification process, Khan said, only 98.4 million voters were found registered at their permanent or temporary addresses, while four million turned out to be dead.
He said 15.9 million voters could not be verified and the election commission had to run another door-to-door campaign in March to verify them.
Subsequently, around 0.95 million voters who were still not registered on either of their addresses were transferred to the permanent address on their ID cards.
“This has created a confusion among voters,” he said. "They can point out mistakes in the registration of their votes to the election commission by June 19."