Pakistan’s PTI slams poll body after Senate election delayed in a province

Election for the upper house of parliament in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa delayed by the election commission after row over reserved seats.

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s main opposition party has condemned a decision by election authorities to delay a vote for seats in the upper house of parliament from a province the party holds, calling it a continuation of “mandate theft” conducted since February’s general election.

The elections to fill half of the Senate’s 96 seats are held every three years in Pakistan. The members, who have six-year terms, are elected by legislators in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, and in the four provincial assemblies. The seats in the Senate are determined by the numbers held by different parties in the national and provincial assemblies.

On Tuesday, a vote to elect 30 senators was held, days after 18 senators were elected unopposed from the Punjab and Balochistan assemblies.

But the election for 11 seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly was delayed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which said some members nominated by the ECP to fill reserved seats in the provincial assembly were not administered oaths of office.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, which governs the province, has challenged the ECP decision to allocate reserved seats to opposition parties and has refused to administer the oaths to the new members.

In a statement on Tuesday, the PTI said the Election Commission’s latest decision amounted to “poll robbery”.

“The ECP decision to postpone the polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is merely a continuation of the same conspiracy under which the people’s mandate was stolen after recent general