Election Commission Issues Voters List For By-elections

The Election Commission of Pakistan has issued the schedule and voters’ list for by-elections in the constituencies of national and provincial assemblies.

According to ECP, 5.57 million voters are registered to cast their ballots in 12 constituencies of the National Assembly.

In the provinces, 2.39 million voters will cast their ballots in 12 constituencies of Punjab, 1.58 million in 10 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 483,167 in three of Sindh and 183,381 in two of Balochistan.

As per the schedule, by-polls will be held on a total of 39 constituencies 36 on October 14 and the remaining three have been scheduled for October 31.

Eleven National Assembly and 26 provincial assembly seats fell vacant due to different reasons, including resignations by those elected on more than one seat and death of some contesting candidates.

Four of the 11 National Assembly seats have been vacated by Prime Minister-elect Imran Khan who won all five seats he contested. The seats vacated by him are: NA-35 (Bannu), NA-53 (Islamabad), NA-131 (Lahore) and NA-243 (Karachi). Two National Assembly seats NA-65 (Chakwal) and NA-69 (Gujrat) have been vacated by Chaudhry Pervez Elahi of PML-Q, who has now been elected the Speaker of Punjab Assembly.The seat of NA-56 (Attock) has been vacated by retired Maj Tahir Sadiq of PTI who also won from adjacent NA-55 seat. Likewise Ghulam Sarwar Khan has vacated NA-63 seat. He also won from NA-59 (Rawalpindi). Another seat, NA-124 (Lahore), has been vacated by PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, who has chosen to retain the provincial assembly seat he also won in the election.

There are 13 provincial assembly seats in Punjab on which by-elections will be held. They include PP-3 Attock, PP-27 Jhelum, PP-87 Mianwali, PP-103 Faisalabad, PP-118 Toba Tek Singh, PP-164 and PP-165, Lahore, PP-201 Sahiwal, PP-222 Multan, PP-261 Rahim Yar Khan, PP-272 Muzaffargarh, PP-292 Dera Ghazi Khan and PP-296 Rajanpur. Nine provincial assembly seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on which by-elections will be held include PK-3 and PK-7 Swat, PK-44 Swabi, PK-53 Mardan, PK-61 and 64 Nowshera, PK-78 Peshawar and PK-97 and PK-99 Dera Ismail Khan.Two provincial assembly constituencies each from Sindh and Balochistan, where by-polls will be held include PS-87 Malir and PS-87 Khairpur; and PB-35 Mastung and PB-40 Khuzdar respectively.

The national and provincial assembly seats fell vacant due to the death of candidates or resignation of elected lawmakers from seats as they had won more than one seat in General Elections 2018 held on July 25.