ISLAMABAD: The poll body has appointed the electoral personnel, which mostly comprise the officers of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) as well as the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration (ICTA), for the conduct of local government elections in the federal capital, scheduled on 20th December 2026.
Through respective notifications, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has appointed a district monitoring officer and 16 monitoring officers, besides assigning the election duties to the officials concerned at the Provincial Election Commission (PEC) Punjab, for Islamabad LG polls.
It is worth mentioning here that the ECP has convened a meeting on 10th November in which the secretary Interior, the chief commissioner Islamabad, and the inspector general of Islamabad Police would brief the Commission on security arrangements and related issues regarding the LG elections.
Earlier, on Friday, the respective sessions of the Senate and the National Assembly came to an end without taking up the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2026 — a scenario which implies that the LG polls in the federal capital would be held under the existing laws instead of new laws.
On 21st July this year, the ECP started the delimitation of constituencies in order to hold ICT LG elections in accordance with the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026 promulgated by the federal government on 10th January this year.
The delimitation drive was completed on 14th October. The ordinance was extended for a period of 120 days with effect from 9th May, and finally expired on 6th September.
Thereafter, the government was required to have the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2026 passed by the two houses of Parliament, in order to give legal effect to the ordinance. Based on the ordinance, the bill has been designed to introduce an LG system in Islamabad that would comprise three town corporations, each to be headed by a mayor and two deputy mayors.
In September, the National Assembly’s interior panel passed this bill, but it has not been presented in the NA session.
Last month, the five-member full ECP bench issued an order citing relevant laws to direct the ECP Secretariat to immediately issue the LG elections programme for the ICT in accordance with Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act, 2015. Consequently, the ECP opened nominations for LG polls on 30 October, whereas polling would be held on 20th December.
The development implied that the nearly three months long constituencies’ delimitation exercise in the federal capital ended up futile.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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