The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday notified the schedule for holding Local Government (LG) elections in Quetta district, setting December 28, 2025, as polling day. The LG polls in the capital city of Balochistan have been pending since 2022.
What does the notification say?
According to the ECP’s notification issued on November 3, 2025, Returning Officers will issue a public notice inviting nomination papers on November 11, 2025. The candidates may file the nomination papers from November 13 to 17, while the scrutiny of nomination papers will take place from November 19 to 24. The final list of contesting candidates will be published on December 5, following the disposal of appeals and withdrawals, if any. The polling will take place on December 28, while the election results will be consolidated on December 31, 2025.
Why were the Quetta LG elections delayed?
The previous Local Governments in Balochistan, elected in 2015, completed their tenure on January 27, 2019. Although LG elections were legally required within 120 days under the Elections Act, 2017, they were held in May 2022, more than three years after the expiry of the previous term. The delay primarily resulted from a lack of consensus among political parties over proposed amendments to the Balochistan Local Government Act (BLGA), 2010, and issues concerning the delimitation of constituencies.
However, the LG elections in two major districts with sizeable urban population in the province, including Quetta and Lasbela, were delayed because of issues with the delimitation of wards. While the LG elections in Lasbela were held by the end of 2022, the elections in Quetta could not be held due to pending litigation in the Balochistan High Court over delimitations of wards in the district.
Residents of Sariab, Panjpai, and adjoining localities challenged the ECP’s delimitation before the Balochistan High Court, petitioning that the Commission had unlawfully merged these predominantly rural areas into Quetta’s urban limits in violation of legal and constitutional provisions.
On October 7, 2025, the Court dismissed all petitions, ruling that the petitioners neither followed the prescribed legal procedures nor presented substantial evidence showing that any voter had been deprived of their rights or that the delimitation process violated the law.
An earlier election schedule issued for November 30, 2023, had also been suspended by the High Court due to similar delimitation disputes. As a result, Quetta remains the only major district in Balochistan yet to hold its LG elections.
Refixing of polling day for Punjab by-elections
Moreover, through a separate notification, the ECP refixed the polling day for by-elections in NA-66 (Wazirabad), NA-129 (Lahore-XIII), and PP-87 (Mianwali-III) as November 23. These by-elections were earlier postponed due to the flood situation in the province.
