The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declared on Monday that it will finish delineating the boundaries of the national and provincial assemblies “as soon as possible” and ensure that elections will be held immediately after the delimitation exercise is finished, Aaj News reported.

Delegations from the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P), who met with the ECP for consultation on the election schedule, were given the guarantee by the election watchdog.

Following the publication of the most recent digital census for 2023, the ECP earlier this month ruled out elections for this year. Article 224 of the Constitution requires elections to be held within 90 days following the National Assembly’s dissolution, which occurred three days before the end of the assembly’s constitutional term.

The Elections Act, however, also says in Section 17(2) that “the commission shall delimit constituencies after every census is officially published.”

Accordingly, the ECP stated last week that the process of new delimitation was anticipated to be finished by December 14 – more than a month after the constitutionally required timetable for holding general elections.

Faced with strong public and political backlash over a likely delay in holding the general elections in the country within the constitutionally mandated time period, the electoral body had written to the leaders of top political parties of the country including Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former prime minister Imran Khan for consultative huddles to discuss the electoral roadmap.

In this context, last week, the ECP wrote separate letters to the PTI chief, President of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and former PM Shehbaz Sharif, and top leaders of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F) for consultations over general polls.

Recently, the electoral body launched its exercise to delimit the constituencies of the National and provincial assemblies in accordance with the results of the digital population census without consulting any political party.

This indicates that the general elections may not be held before March next year—and that too in case ECP proceeds to hold preparations for general elections in 90 days— immediately after the completion of the delimitation exercise.

The general elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are already witnessing inordinate delay – keeping in view that both the provincial legislatures were dissolved in January this year and respective caretaker governments are since running the affairs of the two provinces.

The official results of the digital population census were notified by the former federal government on this month’s 7th.