2. • At the national level, Pakistan elects a bicameral legislature, the Parliament of
Pakistan, which consists of a directly elected National Assembly of
Pakistan and a Senate, whose members are chosen by elected provincial
legislators.
• The Prime Minister of Pakistan is elected by the National Assembly.
• The President is elected by the Electoral college, which consists of both
houses of Parliament together with the provincial assemblies.
• In addition to the national parliament and the provincial assemblies, Pakistan
also has more than five thousand elected local governments.
• Elections in Pakistan are conducted under the supervision of Election
Commission of Pakistan.The country offers a multi-party system, with
numerous parties, Frequently, no single party holds a majority, and therefore
parties must form alliances during or after elections, with coalition
governments forming out of negotiations between parties.
INTRODUCTION
3. The constituency-wise detail of seats in the National
Assembly is as under:-
Province/Area No. of seats
Punjab 183
Sindh 75
NWFP 43
FATA 12
Balochistan 17
Islamabad capital territory 2
Total 342
4. QUALIFICATION OF AVOTER
• A person, who is a citizen of Pakistan, is not less than 18 years of age on
the first day of January of the year in which the rolls are prepared or
revised
• is not declared by a competent court to be of un-sound mind and is or is
deemed to be a resident of an electoral area, can get himself enrolled as
a voter in that electoral area
• The citizens registered on the electoral rolls are only eligible to cast their
votes.
5. PAST ELECTIONS
1947 to 1985
Presidential election
• With Ayub Khan’s arrival on the political stage in 1958, the System of Basic
Democracy system was introduced in which ‘the voters delegate their rights
to choose the president and the members of the national and provincial
assemblies to 80,000 representatives called Basic Democrats.
• On January 2, 1965, the first presidential election was held. Some 80,000
'basic democrats', as members of urban and regional councils, caucused to
vote.
• There were two main contestants: Pakistan Muslim League (Conventional)
lead by General Ayub Khan and the Combined Opposition Parties (COP)
under the leadership of Fatima Jinnah.
• COP was made up of some 5 opposition parties, i.e., Pakistan Muslim League
(Council), the Awami League, the National Awami Party, the North West
Frontier group of the National Awami Party, the Nizam-e-Islam Party, and
the Jamaat-e-Islami.
6. General elections
• Between 1947 and 1958, there were no direct elections held in
Pakistan at the national level. Provincial elections were held
occasionally.
• The first direct elections held in the country after independence were
for the provincialAssembly of the Punjab between 10–20 March 1951.
• The elections were held for 197 seats.As many as 939 candidates
contested the election for 189 seats, while the remaining seats were
filled unopposed.
• Seven political parties were in the race.The election was held on
an adult franchise basis with approximately one-million voters.
7. PAKISTANI GENERAL ELECTION, 2013
• The Pakistani general election of 2013 will be the next election to the 14th
parliament of Pakistan.The government of Pakistan has announced elections
to be held by May.
• In the general election, voting will take place in all parliamentary
constituencies of Pakistan, to elect Members (MNAs) to seats in the National
Assembly, the lower house of parliament.
• The current National Assembly is expected to complete its constitutional term
on or before 18 March 2013, five years after the first session of the National
Assembly elected during the 2008 general election.
• Elections must be subsequently held within 60 days of parliament having been
dissolved.This will be the 11th general election for Pakistan since 1962, and
potentially marks the first successful democratic transition between two
elected governments.
8. • With assistance from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems
activities in Asia, the Election Commission of Pakistan announced the
printing of computerized electoral rolls.
• The new computerized system was funded by USAID.Approximately 40
million young Pakistanis will be voting for the first time in the upcoming
elections, out of a registered electorate of 90 million.
PAKISTANI GENERAL ELECTION, 2013 (contd.)
