Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti on Monday filed a petition with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), seeking the postponement of the local government elections in Quetta that were scheduled to be held on December 28.

Informed sources told Dawn that in the petition, Bugti cited the precarious law and order situation in the provincial capital and the suspension of internet services as the reasons for postponing the Quetta Metropolitan Corporation (QMC) elections.

He also said people have migrated due to winters, affecting voter participation.

Earlier, the Balochistan government had requested the election commission to postpone the polls, citing similar reasons stated in today’s petition. The request was turned down.

In other districts of Balochistan, local government elections were held three years ago, and the current bodies’ term would expire in nine months, the sources said.

It is worth noting that the ECP completed all preparations for holding local body elections in Quetta, and the printing of ballot papers was currently underway.

On October 6, a bench of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) rejected constitutional petitions filed by numerous individuals regarding the postponement of the elections and directed the election commissioner of Balochistan to hold the local government elections as soon as possible.

In view of the BHC orders, the election commission had started preparation for holding elections in Quetta and announced the schedule for it on November 13.

Elections would be held in 172 union councils and 641 wards of the city, with 2,710 candidates contesting the elections in Quetta district.

The previous local bodies, elected in 2015, completed their tenure on January 27, 2019. Under the Elections Act 2017, local body elections should be held within 120 days after the expiry of the term. However, the polls were held in May 2022, more than three years after the expiry of the previous term.

The delay primarily resulted from a lack of consensus among political parties over proposed amendments to the Balochistan Local Government Act (BLGA), 2010, and issues concerning the delimitation of constituencies.

The LG elections in two major districts with sizeable urban populations in the province, Quetta and Lasbela, were delayed because of issues with the delimitation of wards. While the LG elections in Lasbela were held at the end of 2022, the elections in Quetta could not be held due to pending litigation in the BHC over the delimitation of wards in the district.