Pakistan election 2018: Nation set to elect 270 MNAs, 570 MPAs

ISLAMABAD: The nation Wednesday will elect 270 members of the National Assembly and a total of 570 members of four provincial assemblies for the next five-year term (2018-2023).

Around 105.95 million eligible voters - 59.22 million males and 46.73 million females - will exercise their right to vote to mark another democratic transition from one elected government to another.

About 1,1673 candidates are vying for 270 national and 570 provincial seats.

Elections have been postponed on two NA and six provincial seats, while one candidate has been declared winner unopposed on a provincial seat.

Elections have been postponed in NA-60 owing to disqualification of PML-N candidate Hanif Abbasi. Polls have also been postponed in NA-103 over death of independent candidate Mirza Muhammad Ahmed Mughal.

Election on six provincial constituencies including PK-78, PP-87, PP-103, PS-87, PK-99 and PB-35 have also been postponed due to the death of candidates.

Election Commission of Pakistan has established 83, 307 polling stations, 17,000 of them have been declared as sensitive.

The ECP has set up 23, 424 polling stations for male voters and 21,707 for female voters.

Around 40, 133 combined polling stations and 43 improvised polling stations have been set up. CCTV cameras have been installed at sensitive polling stations.

The ECP has delivered election material including ballot boxes, screened off, compartments, nylon stamps, brass seals, tamper evident bag, stationery seals, marking aid rubber stamps and indelible ink vials to the polling stations.

The ballot papers have already been sent to respective polling stations.

As many as 53,000 international, national and local observers and media persons will monitor the elections.

In order to hold the elections in a peaceful manner and provide a level playing field to all the stakeholders, around 7,70,000 army troops will perform duty out and inside the polling stations.

As many as 180,000 regular army and 190,000 reserves will be deployed at the polling stations.

About 449,465 police force will perform elections duty.

The ECP has appointed 2720 district returning officers and returning officers and assistant returning officers to conduct the proceeding of the elections in a free and fair manner.

The General Elections 2018 are different from the previous elections in several ways.

These are the first elections after electoral/legal reforms took place in the country.

These are also first ever elections in history that preparation of electoral rolls and delimitation have been simultaneously proceeded for.

Similarly, Computerized Electoral Rolls System will be fully operational.

The GIS enabled polling scheme will help each voter to have a look of his polling station on his computer/mobile.

The Result Management System having legal cover will be fully functional, while Results Transmission System will be used for early results.

Moreover, water mark ballot papers imported from UK and France are being used in these elections.

In the election 2013, overall voter turnout was recorded at 55.02%.

The PML-N got a majority of votes (14.8 million) followed by PTI (7.5 million), PPP (6.8 million) and MQM (2.4 million).

Independent candidates have picked up 5.8 million votes.

In the 2013 election, PML-N got 125 seats, PTI 27, PPPP 31, Independent 32, MQM 18 and JUI-F 10 and PML-F 5.