ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: The Election Commission may consider putting off the January 8 elections by 20 or 30 days when it meets here on Monday.

Sources told Dawn the feeling in the commission was that such a delay would prevent derailing the election process.

The EC will discuss the attacks on its offices and the demands for postponement made after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The sources said the EC seemed inclined to extend the polling by 20 to 30 days as, according to the high-ups, it would also help the government focus its attention on law and order during Muharram.

The election commissioners of Sindh and the NWFP were reluctant to conduct polls on Jan 8 as organisation’s offices in Sukkur, Jamshoro, Dadu and a number of other towns had been set on fire, reducing electoral rolls, transparent ballot boxes and voting screens to ashes, the sources said.

They said that the decision to postpone polls or otherwise now depended on political parties.

The Pakistan Muslim League-N has already decided to boycott elections while the Pakistan People’s Party’s central executive committee is scheduled to meet on Sunday to discuss the subject.

Expressing grief and shock over the tragic death of Benazir Bhutto, on behalf of the EC, Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Qazi Muhammad Farooq said: “The nation has lost an outstanding leader of international stature”.

He noted that pre-poll arrangements including printing of ballot papers, logistics as well as training of polling personnel have been affected by the law and order situation.

“It is a matter of common knowledge that in the aftermath of the unfortunate assassination of the former prime minister on December 27, the law and order situation in the country suffered deterioration,” an EC statement said.

The political agent and district returning officers have also conveyed that the law and order situation in the Kurram Agency was not conducive for the conduct of polls and they had received requests for postponement of election in two constituencies till the restoration of normalcy in the area.

Similar position might emerge in the Swat district where a candidate for the provincial assembly had died in a bomb blast on Friday.