Voting for general elections is underway in Pakistan. Voting has started from 8 am local time and will continue till 5 pm.
Ahead of the elections, security concerns have arisen in the wake of a deadly explosion in Balochistan province on Wednesday that killed around 30 people. However, the authorities have promised to ensure peaceful elections.
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, there are more than 128 million registered voters for this year’s elections. A total of 5 thousand 121 candidates are contesting in 266 seats.
Voting is going on in 90 thousand 675 polling stations. Out of this, 46 thousand 65 polling stations have been declared sensitive and 18 thousand 437 polling stations have been declared highly sensitive.
Apart from the National Assembly elections, elections are also being held in four provincial assemblies of Pakistan today.
Yesterday Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja spoke to the Chief Secretaries and Inspector Generals of Police of four provinces. The security forces have been instructed to keep the voters on high alert to ensure the safety of the voters.
Political unrest ahead of the elections, Imran Khan’s sentencing, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders running on the court balcony and taking away the party symbol—were in the news. Human rights organizations say that the political parties did not get equal opportunities (level playing field) in the elections.
The National Assembly of Pakistan once had 342 seats. Al Jazeera reports that some constituencies will be demarcated based on the results of the national census conducted in 2023. In this the total number of seats reduced from 342 to 336. Among them, direct elections are being held today in 266 constituencies. Remaining 70 reserved seats. Out of this 60 seats are reserved for women and 10 are minority seats.
