PESHAWAR: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has completed the initial delimitation of the village and neighbourhood councils for the local government elections and will display on Friday (today) the preliminary report for perusal of general public.

According to a press release issued here by the ECP, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the general public could submit any objection or proposal to the delimitation authority till Oct 2 after which the authority would decide those till Oct 17.

The delimitation authority would inform the relevant delimitation committees about its decisions till Oct 24 whereas the final delimitation report would be notified on Oct 25.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the last local government polls were held in 2015 and the tenure of the elected persons expired on Aug 28, 2019. Under section 219 of the Election Act, 2017, fresh polls were to be held within 120 days of the expiry of the term of existing local bodies.

Subsequently, through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Epidemic Control and Emergency Relief Ordinance, 2020, in May this year the polls had been delayed till continuation of the declaration of health emergency in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2020