In a bid to address concerns raised by the monitoring group Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday clarified key aspects of its preliminary delimitations report.
The electoral watchdog in an issued statement emphasised that Fafen’s analysis of the initial constituencies was flawed and based on a misunderstanding of the criteria used for seat distribution.
The ECP’s preliminary delimitations, released on Wednesday, were formulated in light of the 2023 digital census, and they aimed to rationalize electoral districts across the nation.
These changes included the consolidation of numerous districts to ensure equitable population representation and a reshuffling of the number of national and provincial assembly seats allocated to various districts.
Addressing Fafen’s concern, the ECP explained that it had distributed 266 seats in the National Assembly among the provinces based on population. However, Fafen mistakenly considered the province as the unit for determining seats instead of the district unit, leading to confusion.
The Elections Act 2017, Section 20, outlines various rules for constituencies beyond population, and the reasons for changes in constituencies were detailed in the preliminary constituency report.
