Pakistan goes to the polls on Saturday to elect
lawmakers to the lower house of parliament and four provincial
assemblies. It is the first time that a civilian government has
completed a full term and handed over power through the ballot box in
Pakistan's 66-year history. Here are some key facts about the election:
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CANDIDATES
There are 4,670 candidates standing for 272 seats in a
first-past-the-post system in the 342-member lower house. Sixty seats
reserved for women and 10 for non-Muslim minorities are distributed by
proportional representation based on the parties' share of the directly
elected seats. A total of 10,955 candidates are running in elections for
Pakistan's four provincial assemblies in Punjab, Sindh in the south,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the northwest and Baluchistan in the southwest.
Only 161 women are standing for the national assembly, 3.5 percent of
the candidates. |
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VOTERS
There are 86.2 million registered voters -- 37.6 million women and 48.6
million men. |
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POLLING STATIONS
The Election Commission has set up around 70,000 polling stations, 40
percent of them for women, to be staffed by more than 600,000 people.
Voters must present their ID cards and their fingers are inked after
voting. |
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HOURS OF VOTING
Polls will open at 8:00 am (0300 GMT) and are scheduled to close at 5:00
pm. Elections have been postponed in three constituencies -- two for
provincial assembly seats and one for a national assembly seat -- after
candidates were assassinated during the campaign. |
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SECURITY
More than 600,000 security personnel, including 50,000 soldiers, will be
deployed during the election to guard against Taliban attacks that have
killed more than 100 people during the campaign.
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TRIBAL AREAS
Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous federally administered tribal areas
elect 12 members to the national assembly. This year is the first time
that political parties have been able to contest the election in the
area, a Taliban and Al-Qaeda hotbed on the Afghan border.
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POST-ELECTION STEPS
Ballots will be counted by hand at individual polling stations. They
will be forwarded to provincial election commission offices and then
tallied in Islamabad. First results are expected from 10:00 pm. The
election commission will certify final results within a week. A majority
of 172 out of 272 directly elected seats is required to form a
government.
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OBSERVERS
Tens of thousands of local and international observers, along with
representatives of the candidates and media, are to monitor polling. The
main Pakistan observer organisation is the Free and Fair Election
Network, which aims to field 43,500 observers. |
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