Pakistan’s Commission Sets June 26 for Holding By-Elections

May 9th, 2008 Sana · No Comments

By Khalid Qayum and Paul Tighe

May 8 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s Election Commission set June 26 as the date for holding by-elections to fill vacant parliamentary seats after the government criticized a delay in staging the ballots that were scheduled originally in April.

The commission announced the revised date after saying two days ago that voting for eight National Assembly seats and 30 in provincial assemblies would be postponed to August from June. Filing of nomination papers will begin today, the official Associated Press of Pakistan cited Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad, the commission’s secretary, as saying yesterday.

“There is no reason to delay the voting,” Information Minister Sherry Rehman said in the capital, Islamabad, yesterday before the commission’s announcement.

Parties opposed to President Pervez Musharraf won most seats in Pakistan’s Feb. 18 general election and formed a coalition government led by Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Zardari and Sharif, who aren’t members of the 342-seat National Assembly, have yet to decide whether they will stand for a seat in the lower house in the by-elections.

The commission said two days ago the by-elections would be delayed to Aug. 18 from June 18, citing security concerns and the delivery of the national budget in June as reasons for the delay. In April, the agency postponed the elections to June 18, saying it wanted to give political parties more time to campaign.

The rescheduling is “a conspiracy” by Musharraf to undermine democracy, Siddique-ul-Farooq, a spokesman for Sharif’s party, said on May 5.

Under Pakistani law, the president appoints the chairman of the Election Commission and its members.

The National Assembly and provincial legislature seats were left unfilled after the February elections because Pakistani law allows a candidate to run in several districts at the same time. A candidate who wins in more than one district must choose which seat to take, leaving one or more vacant.