By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is gearing up for a historic general election on February 8, with a record number of 28,626 candidates vying for 1,085 seats in the national and provincial assemblies.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said on Monday that it had received 7,713 nominations for 266 general seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, including 471 women candidates.
The most populous province, Punjab, has the highest number of candidates, with 9,029 people vying for 297 general seats in the provincial assembly and 3,871 people competing for 141 general seats in the National Assembly.
The southern province of Sindh has 4,265 candidates for 130 general seats in the provincial assembly and 1,681 candidates for 61 general seats in the National Assembly.
The northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 3,464 candidates for 115 general seats in the provincial assembly and 1,322 candidates for 45 general seats in the National Assembly.
The southwestern province of Balochistan has 1,788 candidates for 45 general seats in the provincial assembly and 631 candidates for 16 general seats in the National Assembly.
The federal capital, Islamabad, has 208 candidates for three general seats in the National Assembly.
The ECP said 459 candidates had filed nominations for 60 reserved seats for women in the National Assembly, and 150 candidates for 10 reserved seats for non-Muslims.
In the provincial assemblies, which have a total of 593 general seats, 18,546 candidates have submitted their nominations, including 802 women. Punjab has 9,029 candidates, Sindh has 4,265 candidates, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 3,464 candidates, and Balochistan has 1,788 candidates.
Additionally, 1,366 candidates have filed nominations for 132 reserved seats for women in the provincial assemblies, and 393 candidates for 24 reserved seats for minorities.
The commission said that the scrutiny of nomination papers, a process to weed out ineligible candidates, had begun on Monday and would continue until Dec. 30. It has set up an online facilitation center at its headquarters to assist the returning officers, who are responsible for accepting or rejecting the nominations.
The center is backed by various government agencies, such as the National Database and Registration Authority, the National Accountability Bureau, the Federal Investigation Agency, the Federal Board of Revenue, and the State Bank of Pakistan, which will provide data on the candidates’ identity, assets, taxes, loans, and criminal records.
ECP spokesman Haroon Shinwari said the center would work round the clock, and that the defaulting candidates should approach the concerned returning officers from December 25 to 30 to clear their dues.
Shinwari said the returning officers were bound by the Elections Act to avoid asking any “irrelevant questions” to the candidates, and to give them a reasonable opportunity to examine all the nomination papers.
According to the act, a returning officer may reject a nomination paper “if he is satisfied that the candidate is not qualified to be elected as a member”. However, the rejection of a nomination paper does not invalidate the nomination of a candidate by any other valid paper.
A list of candidates will be published on January 11, and the candidates will have the option to withdraw until January 12. The regulator will then allot electoral symbols to candidates on January 13. The election campaign will end 48 hours before the polling day.
The ECP has also given more time to foreign observers to submit their applications to monitor the polls. They can now submit their applications from December 31 till January 20.
The upcoming elections are seen as a test of the country’s democratic transition, as the previous polls in 2018 were marred by allegations of military interference and manipulation in favor of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party. The military, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its 73-year history, has, however, denied any involvement in the electoral process.
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