• Polls were earlier scheduled for Jan 24 but delayed due to harsh winter season
• Local government elections to be held on June 14, after over 20 years
GILGIT: Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Election Commissioner Raja Shahbaz Khan has announced that polling for the GB Assembly elections will be held on June 7, while the election schedule will be issued on April 13.
He also announced that the local government elections in Gilgit-Baltistan will be held on June 14, marking the first such polls in over two decades. He said that announcing the election date was a key demand of political parties.
The Chief Election Commissioner added that the appointments of Returning Officers (ROs), District Returning Officers (DROs), and Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) have also been notified.
Raja Shahbaz Khan said that preparations for both the GB Assembly and local government elections have been completed.
The elections for the GB Assembly were originally scheduled for January 24, 2026. However, days after the announcement, they were postponed indefinitely due to harsh weather conditions in the region.
The local government polls, announced after a gap of 20 years, were initially scheduled for February 14, 2026.
Earlier this month, the Chief Election Commissioner had said that preparations were underway but no final date had been decided.
Fourteen political parties had opposed holding elections in January or February due to severe weather, as heavy snowfall had cut off many areas from the rest of the region.
Political parties were uncertain about holding elections before June and feared delays until October. They also agreed that conducting elections during Muharram, beginning on June 15 or 16 this year, or during other religious occasions such as Chehlum, would not be feasible.
Leaders feared that any delay beyond June could push elections to September or October.
Five-year background
The last GB Assembly elections were held on November 15, 2020, across 24 constituencies. The PTI formed the government, and Khalid Khurshid was elected chief minister.
However, in July 2023, the GB Chief Court disqualified Mr Khurshid. Subsequently, a coalition government comprising a PTI dissident group, the PPP, and the PML-N elected Haji Gulbar Khan as the new chief minister.
The assembly completed its five-year tenure on November 24, 2025.
On the same day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, as chairman of the GB Council, appointed retired Justice Yar Muhammad as caretaker chief minister under Article 48-A(2) of the Gilgit-Baltistan Order, 2018.
According to the 2018 order, elections must be held within 60 days after the assembly completes its tenure.
On December 12, President Asif Ali Zardari had announced January 24 as the polling date. Following the presidential order, the Chief Election Commissioner issued the election schedule for both the GB Assembly and the long-delayed local government polls.
However, on December 18, after consultations with political parties and a majority consensus, the Election Commission postponed the elections due to harsh weather conditions, stating that new dates would be announced later.
Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2026
