LAHORE: The Punjab government has announced to hold local government (LG) elections in the province on May 15.
In a statement, Punjab Local Government Minister Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed said that a special plan has been formulated to finalise the arrangements for LG polls, which would be conducted in two phases.
According to the provincial statement, the direct election as per the provision in the LG law would end corruption and strengthen the local governments.
He pointed out a typical pattern in which local government wards were reconstituted and abolished after each election, saying that it was regrettable that the repeated “tinkering” with the wards had weakened the LG system.
“We are making efforts to ensure that no changes are made in constituencies for at least 25 years,” he said, adding: “In the past, no government has allowed local bodies to function properly but we are trying to give an independent local government system.”
The minister further said that the job of the members of the assembly was to legislate but they were doing the work of the local body representatives.
In December last year, the ruling party had faced startling setbacks in the first phase of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s local government elections with the candidates of the opposition parties managing to defeat its nominees.
Prime Minister Imran Khan later directed the Punjab government to immediately complete its homework for holding the local government elections in the province, saying that he himself would supervise its strategy.
A day after his party lost several seats in the province, the premier in a statement had admitted that the PTI had made ‘mistakes’ in the LG polls s and pinned the blame on “wrong candidate selection”.
Meanwhile, local government elections will be held on April 15 in the federal capital through electronic voting machines (EVMs). The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asked the federal government to provide 3900 electronic voting machines for the upcoming elections.
