LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued preliminary lists of constituencies for holding local government (LG) polls in Punjab.

As per the schedule issued by the ECP on Dec 27, 2021, the demarcation committees have displayed the preliminary lists of constituencies for the forthcoming local polls at all 36 district offices of the commission in the province. These lists include details of the neighbourhood and village councils.

The demarcation committees have fixed boundaries of the neighbourhood and village councils under the Election Act 2017 and the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2021. At least 2,544 neighbourhood councils and 3,128 village councils have been formed.

Voters may challenge the demarcation of their respective constituencies till Feb 25 with the relevant authorities formed by the Election Commission, and the authorities will decide on the objections by March 12, says a press release issued by the ECP.

All regional election commissioners at divisional level have been appointed demarcation authorities except for Lahore district, where director (legal) of the office of the provincial election commission will act as the demarcation authority, it says.

The final list of constituencies will be issued on March 22 as per the earlier announced schedule, the press release adds.

Months after coming into power, the PTI had dissolved the local governments elected under the 2013 LG law in May 2019 with the promise of introducing a more empowered system under new laws. In March 2021, however, the Supreme Court restored the dissolved local governments and ruled that Section 3 of the new Local Government Act 2019 providing for dissolution of the elected third tier of government ahead of their legal tenure was unconstitutional.

The Punjab government restored the local governments only in October last when the apex court expressed its displeasure at the non-implementation of its earlier order. The local governments completed their term on Dec 31, 2021 as the provincial government promulgated the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2021 on Dec 12.

The ordinance has been lying with the Punjab Assembly’s standing committee since then to become an act. Opposition parties, which had been boycotting the standing committees for certain reasons, joined the proceedings of the standing committee vetting the Punjab Local Government Bill 2021 in view of the importance of the proposed law.

Four sittings of the committee have been held clearing 82 out of the 222 clauses of the draft bill. The opposition fears that the treasury may bulldoze the law-making process in a bid to pass the draft law as it is and at the earliest.

It was set to challenge and get deleted the clause that binds the ECP to use electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the local polls’ first phase which is likely to be held in the second fortnight of May, when the government abruptly suspended proceedings of the committee earlier this month.

As time is slipping out of the hands of the PTI government, it is likely to bulldoze the local government law during the ongoing month otherwise, the ECP will hold the local polls under the 2019 Act in which the use of EVMs is not included.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2022