KARACHI: Long overdue elections of the city mayor/deputy mayor and chairman/vice chairman of local bodies institutions will be held on June 29.

Polling will be held from 8am to 4pm without break. The elected representatives will be administered oath on July 4.

According to the elections schedule, which was announced by joint secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Atta-ur-Rehman on Thursday, the returning officers will issue public notice in this regard on June 11. They will receive nomination papers on June 15 and 16. The documents will be scrutinised on June 17 and 18 while appeal against acceptance or rejection of the nomination papers can be filed by June 20, which will be decided by the appellate authorities the following day. They will be allowed to withdraw nomination papers by June 22 and a final list of candidates with symbols will be published the same day paving the way for conducting polling on June 29. The result after consolidation will be declared on June 30 and the notification of returned candidates will be issued by the ECP on July 2. It will be followed by administration of oath to the elected mayor/deputy mayor and chairman/vice chairman of the councils on July 4.

According to the notification in order to ensure that election to the seat of mayor/deputy mayor and chairman/vice chairman in district councils, municipal committees, town committees, municipal corporation, district municipal corporations and metropolitan corporation in the Sindh province are conducted in accordance with the provisions of Article 218(3) of the Constitution, the ECP directs that:

(i) All executive authorities in the federation and in the provinces shall neither announce any development project nor use state resources in local government elections calculated to influence the elections in favour of a particular candidate;

(ii) If any person in government service misuses his official position in any manner in order to influence results of the elections, he shall be liable to be proceeded against under Section 68 of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013;

(iii) No transfers / postings of the civil servants shall be made after the issuance of election schedule of the local government elections without prior approval of the commission till the publication of election results;

(iv) Any holder of public office, who is found to have violated any provision of election laws or the instructions issued by the election commission, shall be proceeded against as mandated in law;

(v) Polling hours shall be from 8am to 4pm without break.

The offices of the election commission as well as the offices of district returning officers and returning officers shall remain open on all public holidays during this period.

All electoral activities mentioned in the aforesaid schedule shall be undertaken during office hours (8am to 2pm) and the said timing will also be followed on public holidays fixed for any electoral activity of the schedule.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2016