ISLAMABAD: Pakistan goes to polls today amid heightened political bitterness and uncertainty gripping the country.
Despite many delays and political hiccups, Pakistanis will now cast their votes today, electing new national and provincial legislatures and starting a new legislative journey.
The road to these elections has been marked by challenges with echoes of the past that haunt the present. In the 2018 polls, PML-N’s top leader Nawaz Sharif was caught in the crosshairs. But this time, PTI chief Imran Khan and his party are facing a tough crackdown.
The election was earlier scheduled for November last year as the previous National Assembly was dissolved days before it could complete its term in August 2023. However, unforeseen events stalled the election process.
Soon after the caretaker government was sworn in, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced that it could not hold general elections within the 90-day constitutional time frame as it would have to redefine constituencies in view of the digital census the outgoing political government announced in the last week of its term.
The ECP later announced holding the polls in the last week of January without specifying the exact date. However, after consultation with the President, the poll watchdog had to announce the election date on November 3, 2023 only after the intervention of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court later also removed some other legal hurdles to the general elections which some political parties like JUI, PML-N wanted to postpone to a later date due to various reasons including inclement weather in the northern parts of the country and security issues. The unsettled political atmosphere was the only thing that remained unchanged throughout.
Given the highly polarized environment associated with security challenges, the ECP has deployed security forces to perform the duties defined in Article 245 (functions of armed forces) of the Constitution.
The police will respond as the first-tier force, followed by the civilian armed forces as the second level and the armed forces as the third level. Armed forces have been deployed outside the most sensitive polling stations.
The role of security forces has become even more important following the recent increase in violent attacks targeting election candidates and political entities, particularly in the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Parties and independents
The PML-N, PPP, MQM-P, JUI-F, PML-Q, TLP, JI, ANP and other regional and religious parties are vying for their share of the political pie with the beleaguered PTI fielding its candidates as independents. It was not an option for the PTI to field independent candidates, rather it was first the ECP and later the Supreme Court that stripped the party of its election symbol, Bat.
The Free and Fair Elections Network (FAFEN) reports that as many as 111 political parties have nominated 275 female candidates for the upcoming general elections, representing 4.6 percent of the total of 6,037 candidates.
Electorate
Still, more than 128 million registered voters out of a total population of 241.4 million would elect members to 266 National Assembly seats and 593 provincial assembly seats.
Between the last two general elections, the number of registered voters increased by 27.4 percent from 86,189,828 in 2013 to 106,000,239 in 2018. Since then, the number of registered voters has increased by 22 million (21.7%) to reach 125 760,588. These include 12.5 million women.
A staggering total of 5,121 candidates, including 4,807 men, 312 women and two transgender individuals – representing a diverse spectrum of parties and ideologies – are vying for the 266 general seats in the National Assembly.
There are 12,695 candidates running for 593 general seats in the four provincial assemblies at the same time, of which 12,123 are men, 570 are women and two are transgender. Voting at the national and regional assemblies will take place on the same day.
Polling stations
The ECP has set up a total of 90,675 polling stations across the country, including a total of 25,320 male polling stations, 23,950 female polling stations and 41,405 combined polling stations.
The ECP has set up 50,944 polling stations in Punjab, of which 14,556 will be for men and 14,036 for women, while 22,352 polling stations will be for both men and women.
There will be 19,006 polling stations in Sindh, including 4,443 for men, 4,413 for women and 10,250 joint polling stations. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will have 15,697 polling stations, of which 4,810 will be for male voters and 4,286 for female voters. There will be 6601 combined polling stations in K-P.
Balochistan will have 5,028 polling stations, of which 1,511 are male and 1,317 are female. The number of joint polling stations in the province is 2,200.
ECP data shows that there will be 276,398 polling stations across the country, including 147,552 male polling stations and 127,846 female polling stations.
There will be a total of 149,434 polling stations in Punjab, 65,005 in Sindh, 47,077 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 14,882 in Balochistan.
Young voters
Within the age categories, the largest share of voters falls in the 26-35 age range. In the younger category of 18-25 years, the share of voters is significantly lower, 18 percent.
The 36-45 age group comprises 22 percent of registered voters. The 46-55 age group has 14 percent of voters, while only nine percent of voters fall into the 56-65 age group. Finally, individuals age 65 and older make up 10 percent of the electorate.
Turnout
In the 2018 general elections, the turnout was 51 percent, meaning half of the country’s voters came out to cast their votes. Politicians and experts believe that no party would be in a position to gain majority in the National Assembly, leading to a hung parliament, again and the only thing that can change predictions, they say, is the turnout of the voters on the polling day.
