Abdul Basit

KARACHI – Pakistan’s Election 2018 is expected to witness record turnout compared to previous elections. The UAE News visited a number of polling stations in Karachi and witnessed long queues inside and outside polling stations.
Female voters equally participated in this elections and a lot of very old people seen at the polling stations. Polling time finished at 6pm Pakistan time for the Elections 2018. The election was very well organised and specially security arrangements were foolproof.
This time there are 105.95 million registered voters for Election 2018, according to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). ECP statistics show that the overall voter turnout was more than 55 per cent in Election 2013. In 2013 Elections, there were total 86.9 million registered voters.
The Government of Pakistan has spent Rs200 on every voter compared to Rs53 in 2013 Election and now it’s voter’s responsibility to go and cast his or her vote. In total, the government has spent Rs4.6 billion on the Election 2018.
There are a total of 342 seats in the National Assembly. Of these, 272 are filled by direct elections. In addition, the Pakistani Constitution reserves 10 seats for religious minorities and 60 seats for women, to be filled by proportional representation among parties with more than 5% of the vote. There is a total of 570 provincial assemblies seats in all four provinces in Pakistan.
Around 105.95 million eligible voters – 59.22 million males and 46.73 million females – will exercise their right to vote to mark another democratic transition from one elected government to another.
About 11,673 candidates are vying for 270 national and 570 provincial seats. Elections have been postponed on two NA and six provincial seats, while one candidate has been declared winner unopposed on a provincial seat.
Elections have been postponed in NA-60 owing to disqualification of PML-N candidate Hanif Abbasi. Polls have also been postponed in NA-103 over the death of independent candidate Mirza Muhammad Ahmed Mughal.
The election on six provincial constituencies including PK-78, PP-87, PP-103, PS-87, PK-99 and PB-35 have also been postponed due to the death of candidates.
Election Commission of Pakistan established 83,307 polling stations, 17,000 of them have been declared as sensitive. The ECP set up 23,424 polling stations for male voters and 21,707 for female voters.
Around 40,133 combined polling stations and 43 improvised polling stations had been set up. CCTV cameras have been installed at sensitive polling stations.
In order to hold the elections in a peaceful manner and provide a level playing field to all the stakeholders, around 7,70,000 army troops performed duty out and inside the polling stations.
As many as 180,000 regular army and 190,000 reserves were deployed at the polling stations. About 449,465 police force performed elections duty. -abdulbasit@theuaenews.com