Voters to decide political leaders’ fate today | Maqvi News

Around 128m voters to exercise right to vote at 90,000 polling stations across the country n Security forces including Armed Forces personnel deployed to ensure peaceful elections n Polling to continue from 8am to 5pm n ECP decides to use a modern Election Management System to provide election results n Tough contests likely as political heavyweights contesting for various NA seats.

ISLAMABAD  –  Pakistan is going to witness 12th general elections today as over 250 million population will ex­ercise their right of vote to elect the next governments at the cen­tre and provinces.

Over 90,000 polling stations have been set up across the country amid foolproof security for around 128 million voters in­cluding women. In order to avoid any untoward situation across the country, Chief Election Com­missioner Sikandar Sultan Raja has specially asked the con­cerned authorities to maintain high alert and ensure necessary deployments at polling stations.

A total number 596,618 of personnel from the Army, para­military forces, and police will be on election duties to main­tain law and order and deal with any untoward situation across the country. According to secu­rity sources, in response to the Election Commission’s request for a peaceful environment dur­ing the 2024 elections, a total of 106,942 personnel of the Rapid Response Force have been de­ployed across the country. Addi­tionally, 23,940 security person­nel will be on duty during the elections on a permanent basis in the four provinces. 

In Punjab, 216,000 police personnel are ready to perform their duties for the peaceful con­duct of the election.

Sindh will have 110,720, Khy­ber Pakhtunkhwa 92,535, and Balochistan 46,481 police per­sonnel on election duties.

The security sources say the Pakistan Army and law enforcing agencies are committed to pro­viding a peaceful environment for voters on the elections day.

The CEC of the top election reg­ulatory body issued instructions for security forces deployments following the back-to-back blasts in Balochistan, a grenade attack in Karachi and other law and order related incidents in other parts of the country.

The Chief Election Commission­er also contacted all four provin­cial chief secretaries and police chiefs directing them to ensure the protection of the offices of district returning officers and returning officers.

A large number of political parties and independent candi­dates will compete for a share of the 266 seats in the National Assembly and provincial assem­blies. The electoral watchdog with the consent of all politi­cal parties has decided to use a modern Election Management System (EMS) to provide elec­tion results today. 

According to the plan, the poll­ing will start from 8am and close at 5pm. The commission has al­ready completed the task of handing over 260 million ballot papers to the district returning officers (DROs) for the polls.

In this 12th general elec­tion, along with political heavy­weights and young contestants with their political symbols a large number of independent candidates are set to contest the general elections. Former prime ministers, former president, for­mer chief ministers, former min­isters, former speaker Nation­al Assembly and sitting Speaker National Assembly are set to test their political muscles today.

Three prime ministers are not participating in the upcom­ing polls including Imran Khan, Chaudhary Shujaat and Sha­hid Khaqan Abbasi are not con­testing in the polls due to differ­ent reasons. The turnout in the elections is expected to break previous record of over fifty per cent as for the first time com­paratively a large number of registered voters will exercise their right of vote.

According to the ECP, there are 127,415,319 registered vot­ers out of a total population of 242,828,767 in 266 National As­sembly constituencies. In Pun­jab, there are 73,207,896 regis­tered voters out of 127,688,922 population in provincial seats. In Sindh, there are 26,994,769 reg­istered voters out of 55,696,147 total population living in the constituencies of 130 Sindh As­sembly. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there are 21,928,119 registered voters out of a total population of 40,856,097 on 115 provincial seats. In Balochistan, there are 5,371,947 registered voters out of 14,894,402 population living in 51 assembly seats.

In Punjab, 50,944 polling sta­tions are established for the gen­eral elections, 19,006 in Sindh, 15,697 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and 5,028 in Balochistan.

Like the general elections 2018, Punjab — the biggest province of the country and is considered to mainly make the next government in the centre – would be the main political bat­tlefield.

In 2018 elections, Punjab was contested by the two ma­jor political rivals; Pakistan Teh­reek-i-Insaaf (PTI) and the Pa­kistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), but this time heavy­weights of Istehqam-e-Pakistan [IPP] and Pakistan Peoples Par­ty are also contesting from dif­ferent constituencies.

In 2018 polls, the PTI had won 67 NA seats in Punjab, the PML-N had succeeded in 63 constituencies, PPP had se­cured 6 constituencies, PML-Q 4 and Awami Muslim League had won one seat.

In the major contests across the country, the leaders of the PML-N and the PTI including former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Yasmin Rashid are set to contest against each oth­er. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhu­tto is competing against PML-N’s Atta Tarar. The daughter of former premier Maryam Nawaz’s contest will contest against Abid Farooqi and oth­ers. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman will contest against the PTI’s Ali Amin Gandapur and from PPP Faisal Karim Kun­di. PPP Chairman Asif Zardari will contest election against GD Khokhar of the PML-N. A se­nior politician from IPP Jehan­gir Khan Tareen is contesting against former parliamenta­ry leader of national assembly Amir Dogar in Multan.