Umar Naseer Proposes Merging Local Council and Parliamentary Elections Instead of Presidential and Parliamentary Polls

Former Home Minister Umar Naseer has called for a different approach to election reform, stating that Local Council elections should be held together with Parliamentary elections instead of merging the Presidential and Parliamentary polls.

The current administration is seeking public approval to conduct both the Presidential and Parliamentary elections on the same day. Following the passage of a bill in Parliament to enable this change, preparations are now underway to hold a national referendum on the proposal this Saturday.

Sharing his views on the social media platform X, Umar said he supports reducing the number of elections from three to two. However, he stressed that the country’s two most important elections should remain separate.

He argued that while the Presidential election determines the overall direction of the nation, the Parliamentary and Local Council elections are more focused on constituency level representation. For this reason, he believes the latter two should be combined instead.

Umar further stated that it does not make sense to merge the two largest elections in the name of reducing costs, only to spend additional funds on conducting the smaller election separately.

Based on this reasoning, he urged the public to vote against the proposal in the upcoming referendum.