Over 17 million registered voters of Khyber Pakthunkhwa are all set to go to cast votes to elect 97 members for the provincial assembly for five-year term (2018-2023) and new government for the province today (Wednesday). The voters will also elect 51 members for the national assembly from the province.
Polling will start at 8:00 A.M and continue till 6:00 P.M without any break. However, voters inside premises of polling stations would be allowed to cast votes even after the expiry of the fixed time. The counting of ballot papers would begin soon after completion of polling process and results of would be displaced at prominent place of polling stations.
For the facilitation of voters, July 25 has been declared as public holiday. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has dispatched all election materials to the respective DROs and ROs amid tight security arrangements. Polling would be held on 97 general seats out of 99 as election on two constituencies have been postponed after assassination of the two candidates including Haroon Bilour (PK-78 Peshawar) and Ikramullah Khan Gandapur (PK-99DI Khan) in the suicide blasts.
The KP has been swelled for 2018 general election both in terms of area as well as number of seats in the provincial assembly and national assembly. Though, the number of general seats of KP Assembly remained the same as that of 2013 i.e. 99, however, the fresh delimitation of the constituencies in the province have led to the increase of certain PA seats in parts of the province whereas in some districts the number of seats were reduced.
The numbers of provincial assembly seats of Peshawar district have been increased from 11 to 14 whereas in some district the number of seats was decreased after 2017 population census. In 2013 elections, PTI was emerged the single largest party with 50 seats on its board and thus formed the coalition government with the support of Jamaat-e-Islami and some independents.
All the major political parties have fielded candidates on most of 97 general seats of the provincial assembly with PTI on the top of the list followed MMA, PPP, ANP, PMLN and independents. Major contenders running for the National Assembly seats from KP included heavyweights like Bilawal Bhutto from Malakand, Shahbaz Sharif from Swat, Fazlur Rehman from D.I.Khan, Imran Khan from Bannu, Asfandyar Wali Khan and Aftab Sherpao from Charssada and Sirajul Haq from Dir Lower districts.
Four former chief ministers including Akram Khan Durrani, Haider Khan Hoti, Aftab Sherpao and Pervez Khattak are also contesting from their respective home districts. Former Governor KP, General Iftikhar Hussain Shah (R) is also contesting from native provincial assembly constituency of Kohat as independent candidate after he was refused ticket by the PTI.
As many as 17.827million registered voters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including seven tribal districts would exercise their right of franchise to elect 51 MNAs and 97 MPAs amongst 1993 candidates for next five years 2018-23 amid tight security arrangements today. In overall 15,316,299 registered voters including 8,705,831 male and 6,610,468 female voters would exercise right of franchise for 39 NA seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 2,510,154 registered voters for 12 national assembly seats of tribal districts recently merged into KP, thus raising totally number of voters to 17.826 million in KP would go for polling.
In KP, around 87,269 security personnel would be engaged in election duties to provide safe environment to voters in 11,132 polling stations. Out of 11,132 polling stations, around 2,572 have been declared most sensitive and 4,427 sensitive that would be guarded by security personnel for smooth conduct of elections.
A total 25,720 personnel would be deployed on most sensitive polling stations, 30,989 on 4,427 sensitive polling stations and 20,680 security personnel at 4136 normal polling stations in the province. As many as 14,530 presiding officers, 83,692 assistant presiding officers and 41,846 polling officers will perform duties in KP and tribal districts and frontier regions recently merged in KP.
All Deputy Commissioners have been nominated as District Monitoring Officers (DMCs) who would be assisted by monitoring teams comprising senior officials of district administration and others lines departments including Assistant Commissioners, Additional Assistant Commissioners, Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMO) officers etc for smooth and transparent conduct of elections.
Around 10,351 closed-circuit television cameras have been installed at 2,572 most sensitive polling stations and 7,779 polling booths in the province. The candidates would not be allowed to setup private polling booth in premises of polling stations and strict action would be taken against elements for taking law in hands or disrupt polling process.
The Chief Election Commissioner, former Justice Raza Khan has urged voters to come in large number to polling stations and exercise their right of franchise being a national obligation.
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