ISLAMABAD: After multiple delays and cancellations stretching over nearly four years, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday issued yet another schedule for holding the long-awaited local government elections in Islamabad, setting February 15, 2026 as polling day.

According to the schedule, nomination papers will be issued on December 19, while candidates can submit their papers from December 22 to 27, excluding the December 25 holiday. Polls will be conducted in 125 union councils of the capital.

The last local government completed its term in February 2021, but elections remained stalled on various pretexts, leaving around 2.5 million residents without an elected municipal setup and grappling with issues ranging from water shortages to unpaved streets. Delimitation exercises were carried out several times and election schedules were issued at least thrice, only to be withdrawn. At one point, polling was cancelled a day before voting.

Both major parties have contributed to the prolonged delay. When the LG term ended in 2021, the PTI was in power but failed to hold polls within the mandated 120 days. The succeeding PDM government also extended the impasse by repeatedly altering the number of UCs—from 50 to 101, then to 125—and later proposing changes in the number of general seats, further stalling the process.

Islamabad’s first and only LG elections were held in 2015-16 when there were 50 UCs and PML-N’s Sheikh Anser Aziz became the capital’s first mayor. The upcoming polls, if held as scheduled, will be the second LG elections in Islamabad’s history.