Pakistan Elections 2024: Voting begins at all polling stations in Pakistan for the national and provincial assemblies with more than 128 million voters and will continue till 5 pm (local time).
In the view of elections, all mobile phone services have been suspended nationwide for Election Day.
The main contests to be between candidates backed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, whose Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party won the last national election, and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, who is considered the front-runner and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
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ALL ABOUT PAKISTAN ELECTIONS 2024 IN POINTS
- More than 17,000 candidates will be contesting today's elections in Pakistan.
- Voters will elect 266 candidates to the Pakistan National Assembly, who will later, by a majority vote, elect the next prime minister.
- In all, 17,816 candidates are in the running, of which 12,695 will be contesting for provincial assembly seats and 5,121 for the National Assembly.
- Elections have been postponed in one national and three provincial assembly constituencies due to the deaths of contesting candidates. This includes NA-8 (Bajaur), PK-22 (Bajaur), PK-91 (Kohat) and PP-266 (Rahim Yar Khan). Voters elsewhere will cast two votes each -- one for each of the two assemblies.
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- Pakistan has announced the closure of its borders with neighbouring Afghanistan and Iran to ensure security. Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have led to frequent closures of border crossings at Torkham and Chaman in the recent past.
- Unofficial first results are expected a few hours after voting closes at 5 p.m. (1200 GMT) and a clear picture is likely to emerge early on Friday.
- The country is on high alert, with military personnel stationed at polling stations. Tens of thousands of troops and paramilitary soldiers have been assigned to duty throughout the country. Pakistan also announced that it would close its borders with Iran and Afghanistan for the day to ensure security.
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