WITH the Election Commission seemingly committed to holding elections by the last week of January, it is puzzling that the political parties still appear to be showing little interest or initiative in preparing for the exercise.

One unconfirmed report in a local daily, published this Saturday, has even claimed that the ECP has set aside Sunday, Jan 28 for the general election, and is expected to inform the Supreme Court accordingly.

While the published claim was not substantiated by the ECP — which has publicly taken the position that an official date can only be announced once final delimitations have been notified — it nonetheless appears to be a reasonable target for political parties to plan around.

This gives the parties less than three months to finalise and announce their manifestos, launch their campaigns, interview candidates and issue tickets, and also to start mobilising their cadres to prepare voters for the big day.

Three months is not a lot of time, yet our politicians seem unable to shake out of their languor.

What do they know or suspect that is preventing them from going into election mode? Where are their workers’ conventions, corner meetings and rallies? Where are the conspiracy theories and the wheeling and dealing that provide an endless stream of political commentary before every election?

The entire system seems to be suffering from some form of self-inflicted paralysis, waiting for something to give. One could conjecture from the inaction that, despite the ECP’s assurances, the parties don’t truly believe elections are around the corner.

This uncertainty may be what is preventing them from opening their war chests and launching their campaigns in earnest. Campaigns do end up burning a lot of cash and no party would want to start spending before it knows for certain its ‘investments’ will not go to waste.

However, what our political leaders seem to be overlooking is the possibility that if they start moving according to the timeline the ECP has provided, the pressure to hold the much-delayed elections within the provided time frame will automatically start to build.

It will become much more difficult for the authorities to back out — if that is the fear — when political parties have already sunk their resources into the process. In such a scenario, the latter would resist and take action if their legitimate interests in the upcoming elections were threatened by any further delay.

Therefore, it is not as if the only choice available to the parties is to wait. A grave injustice has already been done by the repeated violation of constitutional deadlines for elections.

Continuing to repeat the ‘it is entirely up to the ECP to set a date’ fallacy will only make parties culpable in denying the people their right to elect a government.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2023