ECP Orders KP Local Government Polls Where Delimitation Is Complete

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan has ordered local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts where the delimitation of constituencies has been completed, with Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja announcing the reserved verdict after hearing a case on the repeated delays in holding the polls.

According to Daily K2, the commission is expected to issue the election schedule soon and a formal announcement is anticipated within the next 24 hours.

The commission has held that polling can proceed in districts where delimitation is finished, notwithstanding the provincial government's concerns over law and order and the imposition of the governor's rule. The ECP has been pressing the provincial administration to clear the legal and administrative obstacles that have held up the elections.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's last local government elections were held in two phases, the first on December 19, 2021 in 17 districts and the second on March 31, 2022. Those polls had themselves been delayed by nearly two years after changes to provincial local government law and related legal proceedings. The terms of the elected local governments expired in March and June 2026, leaving the province without elected local bodies.

Article 140-A of the Constitution requires provinces to establish local governments and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility to elected representatives, while Section 219(4) of the Elections Act, 2017 obliges the ECP to hold local government elections within 120 days of a term's expiry.

In July 2026 the commission began consultations with the provincial government on dates in 23 districts where delimitation had been completed, and the administration assured the ECP of its cooperation. Subsequent amendments to the provincial local government law raised the population threshold for village and neighbourhood councils, complicating delimitation; the commission said the revised thresholds conflicted with the number of councils set out in the relevant legal schedule.

The provincial government later asked that elections in 12 districts be deferred, citing security concerns, the emergency imposed on October 11 and the deployment of troops in certain areas. The ECP questioned why polling could not go ahead in districts where delimitation was already complete, arguing that the emergency did not automatically stop the electoral process.

The dispute has left the restoration of elected local governments in the province uncertain for months.

The verdict comes weeks after the ECP proposed December 14 as the polling date for local government elections in Punjab and sent a draft schedule to the provincial chief secretary for consultation. Earlier, the commission empowered the district returning officer and returning officers appointed for Islamabad's local government elections with the powers of first-class magistrates, enabling them to act against election-related offences.