The Sindh administration has again requested that the elections for Karachi’s local bodies be postponed, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
In a letter to the election supervisor, the provincial government requested a three-month election delay. It did, however, advise that if the elections could not be postponed, they be held in stages.
Because sufficient security personnel were not readily accessible in the current environment, it was proposed that municipal elections be held in three districts for the first phase and four districts for the second phase.
According to reports, security officials are actively involved in flood relief activities in flood-affected regions.
This will assist the Sindh government in concentrating on the available resources in two phases to ensure the peaceful and transparent conduct of local government elections in Karachi, the letter read.
According to the provincial government, transparent and peaceful elections will be impossible if the required number of security officers is not available.
The chief secretary of Sindh and the provincial inspector general of police underlined their inability to provide the requisite security for the local government election in a meeting with the electoral commission on October 11, 2022, according to the letter.
Local government elections in Karachi Division, on the other hand, will be held on October 23, according to media reports.
The Karachi Division local government poll should be postponed for three months in order to mobilise a necessary number of police and other auxiliary forces to conduct free and fair elections.
This appeal comes after the election supervisor opted to hold Sindh local body polls and by-elections on October 16 at the scheduled time, despite requests from the federal and provincial governments to postpone the vote.
Representatives from security agencies were also present at the decision-making meeting.
Elections in the Karachi and Hyderabad divisions would take place as planned, according to the commission, in response to the Sindh government’s request to postpone the local body elections.
The provincial administration had postponed the local government elections in a letter to the organisation, claiming “logistical and security problems.”
A day before the letter was written, the Sindh police refused to deploy men to secure the voting process.
The second round of Sindh’s LG elections was scheduled on July 24. The polls were postponed for a month due to heavy monsoon rains over the province, until a few days before the planned date.
At the request of the province government, the election commission shifted the polling date from August 28 to October 23.
