The election commission of Pakistan has expressed its inability to conduct general elections within three months, citing various legal hitches and procedural challenges as the reason.
A senior official of the commission said that the preparations for the general elections would require some six months, according to the Dawn.
He said fresh delimitation of constituencies, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the number of seats had been increased under the 26th Amendment, and bringing district- and constituency-wise electoral rolls in conformity were the major challenges.
“Delimitation is a time-consuming exercise where the law provides for one month’s time just to invite objections,” he said, adding that another one month was required to address the same. He said a minimum of three months would be required to complete the exercise, followed by another gigantic task of updating voters’ lists.
According to Reuters, Pakistan's political turmoil deepened recently, when Prime Minister Imran Khan avoided an attempt to oust him and sought fresh elections after dissolving parliament, a move the opposition called treasonous and vowed to fight.
The deputy speaker of parliament, a member of Khan's party, blocked an opposition no-confidence motion that Khan had widely been expected to lose, ruling it was part of a foreign conspiracy and unconstitutional.
That stymied the opposition's attempt to come to power, and set up a potential legal showdown over the Constitution in the country of 220 million people,
