The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced the postponement of the upcoming elections in Punjab.
“The decision to postpone the elections had been made after consulting the governments, ministries and different institutions,” ECP said.
In the written order issued, the ECP said that in the exercise of the powers conferred upon it by Article 218(3) read with Section 58 and Section 8(c) of the Elections Act, 2017, the commission “hereby withdraws the election programme […] and fresh schedule will be issued in due course of time with the poll date on October 8”.
“The commission is unable to make alternate arrangements to ensure the security of the election material, polling staff, voters and the candidates,” the order reads.
It added that the finance ministry had also shown an “inability to release funds due to financial crunch and unprecedented economic crisis in the country”.
The order further pointed out that despite the ECP’s best efforts, the executive authorities and federal and provincial governments were not able to assist the electoral body in conducting free, fair and transparent elections in Punjab.
“The briefings from the law enforcement agencies and federal ministries, the ECP had convened meetings on March 20, 21 and 22 to deliberate extensively on the matter of the Punjab elections,” the order added.
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