ECP proposes holding Punjab local govt elections on Dec 14

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has proposed to hold local government elections in Punjab on December 14, according to a draft schedule sent to the Punjab chief secretary. Chaudhry Nadeem Qasim, an additional director general for local government elections, forwarded the proposed timeline to the provincial government for consultation.

The draft outlines a series of steps, including the filing of nomination papers from October 27 to 30, scrutiny from November 2 to 5, and a period for appeals from November 7 to 11. The final list of candidates will be announced on November 19, and polling is set for December 14, with results expected by December 17. The proposed schedule references a consultative meeting held between the ECP and a provincial cabinet committee on August 20, where the ECP agreed to the provincial government's suggestion of holding polls between December 15 and January 15, 2027.

The last local government elections in Punjab were conducted in 2015, with the subsequent polls experiencing multiple delays due to changes in laws and administrative issues. Under Article 140A of the Constitution and the Elections Act, local government elections should commence within 120 days of the local bodies' expiry. In this case, the councils' term ended in December 2021, making the elections due by April 2022, but they have been postponed repeatedly since then.