ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday announced the schedule for local government (LG) elections in the Islamabad Capital Territory.
The tenure of the previous local government ended in February 2021, but the polls remained pending and were postponed further due to “new legislation.”
In its notification, the ECP asked voters in the ICT to choose their representatives for the general seats of the union councils.
The commission fixed December 19 for returning officers (ROs) to issue the public notice inviting nomination papers, while candidates may submit their nomination papers to the ROs from December 22 to 27.
The list of nominated candidates will be released on December 29, while scrutiny of nomination papers will be carried out by the ROs from Dec 30 to Jan 3 next year.
According to the ECP, polling will be held on February 15, and the consolidation of results will be completed between February 16 and 19.
The election watchdog also instructed authorities to ensure that the LG elections are held “honestly, fairly, and in line with the law,” and that “corrupt practices are prevented.”
It directed that all executive authorities in the federation would “neither announce any development project nor use state resources in local government polls calculated to influence the elections in favor of a particular candidate.”
“If any person in government service misuses his official position in any manner in order to influence the results of the elections, he shall be liable to be proceeded against under the law,” the notification added.
In addition, it prohibited the president, prime Minister, chairman and deputy chairman of the Senate, Speaker, deputy speaker of an assembly, federal minister, ministers of states, governors, chief ministers, provincial ministers and advisers to the prime minister, chief ministers and chairmen or vice chairmen from participating in an election campaign after the issuance of this program.
“However, members of any assembly, Senate and local government are allowed to participate in the election campaign,” it added, on the condition that they strictly abide by the ECP’s code of conduct.
The commission added that polling hours will run from 8am to 4pm, and all polling operations must be conducted during official working hours.
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