Treasury has only approved K700 million out of the K1.2 billion that the Electoral Commission budgeted for the constituency demarcation exercise.

The commission`s chairman, Chifundo Kachale, has told the Budget and Finance Committee of the National Assembly that the electoral body is facing a shortfall of K562 million.

However, Kachale has maintained that the Commission will commence implementing the exercise in accordance with the readily available funds.

“We are not really as pressed as it might otherwise be because as we speak we already have K700 million committed, appropriated in our budget which can enable us to begin the process.

“We are rolling out our programme and on the 23rd of this month we will be in Chitipa and Karonga as we begin our sensitisation of the stakeholders on the activity that we have to undertake,” said Kachale.

Reacting to the budget deficit, Budget and Finance Committee chairperson, Gladys Ganda, concurred with the Commission saying her committee will work through the concerns raised.

She said: “Resources are always limited and for us to be able to fund that amount it means that government will definitely have to probably do something and we are ready to assist as a committee.”

It has been over 20 years now since the 1998 constituency demarcation exercise was conducted, an exercise that was supposed to be done every five years.