On February 8 of this year, elections were held to the National Assembly of Pakistan (the lower house of parliament), as well as to the representative bodies of the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Since the previous composition of the National Assembly was dissolved ahead of schedule, in accordance with the Constitution of the republic, a general vote was to be held within 90 days from the date of dissolution, that is, in early November 2023. However, due to the approval of the new population census in August 2023, according to which the number of Pakistani citizens increased from 213.2 million to 241.5 million, the elections were postponed to a later date to make changes to the composition of constituencies and the total number of seats in parliament. 336 deputies will be elected to the National Assembly this year (342 in the last convocation).
266 deputies of the National Assembly are elected from single-member regional electoral districts by direct and free voting according to a majority electoral system based on a relative majority. According to the proportional representation system, 60 seats are allocated to women, and 10 seats are allocated to non-Muslims.
About 5,000 candidates are competing for seats in the National Assembly, and about 12,000 people are competing for seats in regional representative bodies.
The number of voters was 128,585,760, of which 69,263,704 (53.8%) were men and 59,322,056 (46.2%) were women. Young people make up 44.2% of the voting population. In total, 90,675 polling stations were established in Pakistan, employing more than 1 million workers.
On February 7 of this year, representatives of Uzbekistan held a meeting with the Secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan, Mr. Saeed Asif Hussain. During the meeting, Mr. Saeed Asif Hussain briefed on the preparations by the Election Commission of Pakistan for the elections and the electoral processes. On the same day, representatives of Uzbekistan got acquainted with the activities of the election monitoring management center and the central headquarters.
On the day of voting, representatives of Uzbekistan observed the electoral process at several polling stations in the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad.
Separate voting rooms for men and women are provided at polling stations. The voter first signs the list of voters and receives the ballot after fingerprinting. Then, in the secret ballot booth, he presses a specially prepared seal to the symbol of his chosen political party.
The Central Election Commission.
