Islamabad: On Thursday, US Ambassador Donald Blome met with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sultan Raja to reiterate US support for “free and fair elections” and expand US-Pakistan relations with “whomever the Pakistani people choose”.
the US embassy’s spokeswoman said “The United States remains committed to working to broaden and deepen the US-Pakistan relationship with whomever the Pakistani people choose”.
Ambassador Blome’s comments come amid Pakistan’s general election uncertainties.
The Shehbaz Sharif-led government prematurely dissolved the National Assembly on August 9. As well as the Sindh and Balochistan assemblies to allow the electoral authority to hold elections within 90 days. Instead of 60 days if the legislature completed its constitutional tenure.
The Council of Common Interest (CCI) approved the 7th Population and Housing Census 2023 days before the legislatures dissolved. Therefore the ECP may not able to hold the polls on time.
Many worried, including the Pakistan Peoples Party, which was part of the coalition government that validated the census.
The statement stated that the US ambassador underlined today that Pakistanis choose their leaders.
Blome also said America would support transparent elections “conducted in accordance with Pakistan’s laws and constitution”.
Michael Gahler, chairman of the EU Parliament’s Election Observation Mission (EOM), warned in June that the EU may not send election observers to Pakistan this year “because we are not sure about the general elections in Pakistan in 2023”.
Gahler briefed a group of Pakistani EU Parliament journalists visiting Belgium at the European External Action Service’s invitation.
Gahler has been in the EU Parliament since 1999 and led the Pakistan EOM in 2008, 2013, and 2018.
He claimed the EOM needs a three-month invitation from Pakistan to send an observation mission to watch the poll. “But we have not received any invitation from Pakistan yet,” he said.
