YET another twist has been given to the prevailing debate on the local government elections in Punjab, spawning serious doubts about the provincial administration’s plans to organise the promised polls any time soon. The government’s decision to issue an ordinance repealing the Punjab Village Panchayats and Neighbourhood Councils Act, 2019, caught the Election Commission of Pakistan as well as the public by surprise. The Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021, reduces the number of village panchayats and neighbourhood councils from 25,238 to 8,000. Consequently, the ECP was forced to withdraw its Feb 4 notification about the timeliness of different activities for the delimitation of villages and neighbourhoods in Punjab. The notification was issued by the ECP after a clear undertaking by the government that it wanted LG elections by September in phases. The amendment ordinance has changed the shape of the LG system, rendering all delimitations and arrangements done so far ineffective. The ECP had filed a reply with the Supreme Court earlier this month, saying the LG elections in Punjab will be held in three phases in June, July and August. The schedule now appears difficult to follow. According to a report that quotes anonymous ECP officials, the Election Commission may challenge the Punjab government’s amendment ordinance in court, which would be unprecedented.

Chances are that the provincial government has amended the act to reduce the number of village and neighbourhood councils in order to make the entire exercise of conducting elections less cumbersome. Yet the secrecy with which the ordinance was issued just days after the government agreed to the ECP plan for holding elections before September is sufficient to raise doubts regarding its strategy for the restoration of local democracy in Punjab in the near future. It is a fact that the ruling PTI, which had promised to give the province a strong LG system to strengthen democracy at the lowest tier, has consistently delayed elections ever since it rolled back the previously PML-N-dominated local institutions. To counter criticism, the administration has come up with weak arguments, sometimes blaming the ECP for the delay. But people are aware that the PTI’s falling popularity graph — a result of the poor performance of the provincial administration that hasn’t delivered on electoral promises, internal rifts, and fears of the opposition PML-N emerging victorious — may be holding it back from going ahead with local elections. The question is: for how long can it drag its feet?

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2021