General elections to be held in last week of January, announces ECP

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced that the general elections in the country will be held in the last week of January 2024, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

In an announcement on Thursday, the ECP said that an initial list of the delimitations of the constituencies will be made public on September 27.

A meeting of the ECP was held in Islamabad on Thursday which reviewed progress on delimiting the constituencies.

The ECP huddle decided to issue the preliminary list on September 27.

The final list of delimited constituencies will be released on November 30 after hearing of objections and proposals regarding the preliminary delimitations.

The general elections will be held in last week of January 2024 after a 54-day election campaign programme following issuance of final list of constituencies.

The ECP announcement came a day after the Commission said it had scheduled a meeting with political parties next month to discuss the code of conduct for general elections.

According to the ECP, a draft code of conduct has been shared with political parties to get their feedback before finalizing it.

The draft code says political parties, contesting candidates and election agents shall not propagate any opinion, or act in any manner prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan, or the sovereignty, integrity or security of Pakistan, or morality or public order, or the integrity or independence of the judiciary of Pakistan, or which defames or brings into ridicule any government institution including the judiciary and the armed forces.

Earlier, the ECP had ruled out holding of elections this year, citing the need for fresh delimitation of constituencies following the notification of 2023 digital census.

Reporter Usman Khan