ISLAMABAD: Polling has started in the by-elections for the five national and 16 provincial assembly seats across Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), and Balochistan today.
There will be by-elections on five National Assembly seats, 12 Punjab Assembly seats, two KP Assembly seats, and as many Balochistan Assembly seats today for which enhanced security measures are in place. The federal government has approved the deployment of civil armed forces and Pakistan Army to avoid any untoward incidents from happening.
These forces will be positioned as second and third tiers behind the police as a Quick Response Force.
According to an interior ministry notification, civil armed forces and Pakistan Army troops will be stationed in 21 constituencies from Sunday until April 22nd.
The Election Commission of Pakistan had sought security assistance from the federal government for the by-polls.
Polling will continue without interruption from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for seats vacated by candidates who won more than one seats in Feb 8 election or where polling was postponed due to the death of a candidate.
According to the ECP, the re-polling in PB 50 Qilla Abdullah will be also held today.
The polling for NA-8 Bajaur and PK-22 Bajaur was postponed on February 8 following the assassination of a candidate, Rehan Zeb Khan. Additionally, polling will take place in NA-44 (Dera Ismail Khan) in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, where Ali Amin Gandapur opted to retain his provincial assembly seat and relinquished the National Assembly seat. He is K-P’s chief minister.
Similarly, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz kept the PP-159 constituency and vacated her NA-119 seat in Lahore.
PM Shehbaz Sharif won elections on both provincial and National Assembly seats. He left the NA-132 Kasur and Lahore’s PP-158 and PP-164 seats vacant, preferring to retain the NA-123 Lahore constituency to become the prime minister.
Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had won two seats of the National Assembly. He, however, retained the NA-194 Larkana seat, vacating the NA-196 (Qamber Shahdadkot) seat.
Approximately 2.55 million Pakistanis are expected to exercise their franchise for the five National Assembly seats, while around 3.61 million individuals will cast their votes for 16 provincial assembly seats.
