Voting has started in Pakistan

More than 128 million voters in Pakistan started voting for the election of the Pakistan National Assembly (NA) and provincial assemblies, which will hold legislative office for 5 years in the country
 
Citizens started to go to the polls across the country for the voting process, which started at 08:00 local time, TRT Haber reports.

5 thousand 121 candidates are competing for 266 seats in the National Assembly, and 12 thousand 695 candidates are competing for 593 seats in the assemblies of 4 states.

Citizens will vote in 90,675 ballot boxes established across the country to elect members of the National Assembly and state assembly who will serve for 5 years.

Voters formed long queues to vote in cities such as Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta, especially in the capital Islamabad.

The election participation rate in Pakistan was 55.02 percent in 2013 and 51.7 percent in 2018.

128.5 million voters

VoteAccording to Commission data, there are 128 million 585 thousand 760 registered voters in Pakistan, which has a population of 241.49 million. 69.2 million of these voters are men and 59.3 million are women.

More than 100 international election observers and foreign journalists are also following the elections.

Voting will end at 17:00 local time.

Unofficial results are expected to start arriving around midnight and final results will be announced tomorrow.

There are 336 seats in the National Assembly

PakistanThere are 336 seats in the National Assembly. Of the 336 seats in the National Assembly, 60 are reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities. This means that MPs will compete for only 266 seats.

Each political party competing for seats in the National Assembly submits to the Election Commission a list of 70 people, 60 of whom are women and 10 of whom are religious minorities. These 70 seats are distributed through proportional representation among parties receiving more than 5 percent of the votes. Members of parliament cannot run for the 70 seats in question.

The prime minister who will form the government will be elected from among the members of the National Assembly. The candidate who obtains an absolute majority of 169 in the parliament will become the 25th prime minister of the country.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, stand out as the two strongest candidates in the elections for the prime ministerial seat. Pakistan Justice Movement (PTI), the party of the imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, is also among the prominent parties.

The last general elections were held in 2018

The last general elections in Pakistan were held on July 25, 2018, and the Imran Khan government took office.

In the vote of confidence held in the Pakistan National Assembly on April 10, 2022, the Imran Khan government fell with 174 "no" votes.

Shahbaz Sharif, the brother of Nawaz Sharif, who served as prime minister for three terms, was elected Prime Minister with the support of the majority with 174 votes in the election held in the Parliament on April 11, 2022, and ruled the country until August 2023.

Anvarul Hak Kakar, the Prime Minister of the interim government that will rule the country until the general elections, was sworn in on August 14, 2023.