Pakistan 81 million voters go to polls today

Pakistan go to polls as more than 81 million voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the polling that began at 8 AM today and will continue till 5.00 PM and the first result are likely to be announce late night.

Wee hours before the polls, the southern Balochistan province was rocked by a series of 20 blasts while a PML-N candidate and three other persons were gunned down in two incidents of violence in the central city of Lahore.Suspected militants also blew up a polling station in the restive Swat valley in northwestern Pakistan.
Polling for 268 seats of the national assembly and 570 seats of the provincial assemblies kicked off at 8.00 A.M. Monday morning, which will continue without any break until 5.00 P.M. in the evening. All arrangements have been finalized for making the election process transparent and peaceful.

Secretary Election Commission Kanwar Dilshad announced to postpone the polling in NA-37 Parachinar-2. Earlier, the election was postponed in NA-42 Tribal area VII in view of the bad law and order, while in NA-119 Lahore-II due to the death of a candidate Tariq Banday and in NA-207 Larkana cum Shikarpur due to PPP Chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto's murder in suicide attack. Elections would be held later on in these constituencies.

In four Punjab Assembly constituencies—PP171, PP141, PP99 and PP70—the elections would be held later on owing to the demise of the candidates from their respective constituencies.

In three NWFP Assembly constituencies—PF92, PF81, PF59—the elections have also been postponed owing to the demise of candidates.

There are 2,234 candidates contesting for the 269 general seats of the national assembly, while 5,017 candidates are contesting for 570 seats of the provincial assemblies and elections in the 7 constituencies out of the 577 would be held later on.

There are 262 candidates for NA seats in NWFP; 179 candidates for 11 FATA seats; 34 candidates on two Islamabad seats; 999 candidates on 147 Punjab seats; 617 candidates on 60 Sindh seats and there are 43 candidates in Balochistan contesting on 14 NA seats.

There are 2272 candidates contesting for 293 seats of Punjab provincial assembly; 1468 candidates for 130 seats of Sindh Assembly; 736 candidates for 96 seats of NWFP Assembly and 541 candidates are contesting for 51 seats of Balochistan Assembly.

Following the completion of polling, counting will start. Transparent ballot boxes--one for the national assembly and another for the provincial assembly, will be kept for casting of the votes. Over 160 million ballot papers--the white one for the national assembly and the green one for the provincial assembly, have been printed for this purpose.

Election Commission has set up over 64,000 polling stations all across the country-382 polling stations in Islamabad, over 37,600 in Punjab, over 13,400 in Sindh, over 8,100 in NWFP, over 3,400 in Balochistan, while 1,122 polling stations set up in FATA, where more than 5,61,000 presiding officers, assistant presiding officers and polling officers have been posted.

All major parties of the country were participating in the elections, which included Pakistan People's Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Awami National Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Muslim League-N, besides a large number of independent candidates are in the field.

Strong contingents of Police and Rangers have been posted at the polling stations for meeting any eventualities and maintaining law and order, besides army will remain stand-by for their help.

On the polls day today, Pakistan army has considerable presence in sensitive areas of the country.

The Polling has been suspended in northwestern Parachinar region in Kurram tribal agency due to suicide bomb attack on Saturday, in which 49 people were killed on the last day of polling.

Security beefed up along the border with Afghanistan, with a large contingent of Khyber Rifles and Frontier Constabulary deployed in Khyber Agency, where Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan had gone missing last week.

Opposition leaders alleging that the government will resort to "massive rigging" to benefit the ruling PML-Q, opposition parties have given calls by the Pakistan People's Party and PML-N have warned that they will launch street protests if they are denied victory in the polls.

Over 10,000 Pakistani and foreign observers are monitoring general elections in Pakistan.

The election commission has issued 1050 accreditation cards to foreign observers and 4600 cards to the local observers. Foreign observers mostly came from United States, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Britain, Germany and France as well as from Japan, Bosnia, China, Nigeria, Belgium, India, Estonia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Moreover, observers have also arrived in Pakistan from Holland, Scotland, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Hungary.

The foreign office has issued visas to 3000 foreign observers that will be lapsed on February 25. The election authorities have also issued observers’ cards to the diplomats of America, Britain, Canada and Japan.

Provincial election commissioners of Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore and 125 District Returning Officers have also issued accreditation cards to over 4400 observers.

Mr. Grant, a representative of International Foundation For Electoral System, was also reached Islamabad. He would monitor 1600 complaints received to the election commission headquarters in Islamabad about irregularities.

Chairman, foreign committee, US Senate Joseph Biden, Senator John Kerry and Senator Chuck Hegel have also reached Islamabad and attended an election briefing along with the US ambassador.

The US team will visit the provinces to monitor the polling and counting process. The US team will release its report about the elections on Tuesday before returning back to home.