ISLAMABAD - Since the LG polls in the federal capital has twice been postponed, the top election regulatory authority will soon start work as per the recently passed legislation.
The LG polls in Islamabad were scheduled be held on October 9 but the government passed amended election bill, 2024, which mainly sought to increase the number of general members, from six to nine, in each of Islamabad’s 125 union councils. This amendment mainly becomes the reason for a new delimitation of constituencies.
According to the rules, the ECP has to immediately launch the delimitation exercise for Local Government (LG polls) afresh, in order to match the criteria after the increased number of general members or wards in the UCs. The body had earlier launched the delimitation exercise for the ICT LG polls around three months ago to complete it by July23. According to an amendment to Section-7 of Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2024, the ECP shall delimit union councils into nine wards for the election of members on the general seats. Previously, there were six wards in a union council.
The electoral watchdog will soon start work on the new wards and and new schedule will be announced to ensure LG polls in the federal capital. Political observers believed that this process will probably take more than six months to ensure LG polls in the federal capital.