ISLAMABAD  -  The Election Commis­sion of Pakistan [ECP] yesterday published the lists of preliminary delimitation of constit­uencies, which is be­ing considered a major step towards holding the elections 2024.

The commission has already announced its tentative schedule to hold the general elec­tions in the country by the end of January, 2024.

The election regulato­ry body, in its notifica­tion, said that the publi­cation of the preliminary con­stituencies will continue for 30 days till October 26, 2023. It will take final decisions on these representations from Oct 28 to Nov 26 (this year) after hearing the positions of the concerned parties. The political parties, af­ter examining the delimitation, will submit their objections to the election body.

As per the preliminary report, political experts viewed that the number game in the national as­sembly might also be changed as per new delimitation of con­stituencies 169 votes will be re­quired to become prime minis­ter. Previously, minimum 172 votes were required for the election of prime minister in the national assembly. Political ex­perts viewed that the number game for no-confidence motion will also be changed.

According to the notification, any individual can also raise ob­jections to its concerned area. The voters have been given the opportunity to approach the of­fice in case of any objection. The final list would be published by November 30.

The commission said this pro­visional report on the delimita­tion of constituencies is based on the recently concluded digi­tal population of constituencies. The preliminary report and map of constituencies can be viewed on the ECP’s website — https://www.ecp.gov.pk/. The voters and political figures can submit their related area con­cerns to the commission.

The ECP mentioned that the objections raised through couri­er, post or fax will not be accept­ed. The election body will start addressing the objections from October 28 to complete it till November 26. The five delim­itation committees were con­stituted for the preparation of draft proposals for the delimita­tion of constituencies of the as­semblies. “The population of the province/area has been divided by the total number of gener­al seats and the average popu­lation or quota per National As­sembly seat was obtained.

The population of a province was divided by the total num­ber of general seats allocated to the provincial assembly of a province for obtaining a quo­ta per seat. In calculating a to­tal number of seats, a fraction of 0.5 and above was generally taken as one seat and a fraction below 0.5 was ignored,” it read.

The commission mentioned in its report that because of Ba­lochistan’s “peculiar situation” more than one district has been clubbed for a seat. The club­bing has also been made in oth­er provinces where it was re­quired. “The share of a district was determined by dividing the population of that district with the quota per seat of the Nation­al Assembly, or as the case may be, of the Provincial Assembly,” the report also said.

It showed that Punjab has the highest number of seats in the National Assembly followed by Sindh, KPK, Balochistan and Is­lamabad. According to the popu­lation graph, Punjab with a pop­ulation of 127.6 million has been given 141 seats and each constit­uency has been divided based on a quota of 905,595. For the Pun­jab Assembly, 297 seats have been allocated with each quo­ta seat determined at 429,929. In Sindh, the 61 NA seats for the 55.6 million population have been divided on a quota of 913,052 per seat. For the Sindh Assembly, 130 seats have been divided on a quota of 428,432 per seat. In KPK, the census showed a population of 40.8 mil­lion and 45 NA seats. Each NA seat has been divided on a quo­ta of 907,913. In the KP Assem­bly’s case, 115 seats have been divided on a quota of 355,270. In Balochistan, 14.8 million people have been given 16 NA seats and each constituency has been di­vided on a quota of 930,900. The provincial assembly of the prov­inces has 51 seats and each seat has been divided on the quota of 292,047. Whereas, Islamabad has a population of 2.3 million and has been given 3 seats and each seat quota has been deter­mined 787,954.