By-election for 35 constituencies across country to be held on Sunday

ISLAMABAD - The by-polls on 35 constituencies across the country will be held tomorrow (Sunday) as over 9.9 million ballot papers have been printed for the purpose.

Over 100 candidates, including some big names of politics, are contesting for 35 national and provincial assembly seats in these by-elections.

The seats include 11 from National Assembly, nine from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly, 11 from Punjab and two each from Balochistan and Sindh assemblies.

According to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), over 5 million registered voters,  2.3 million women and over 2.7 million men, will cast their votes.

By-polls: 1,700 polling stations declared highly sensitive, over 9.9m ballot papers printed

The campaign time for the candidates ended on Friday midnight as they increased the pace of their campaigns during past week.

ECP spokesperson stated that the ballot papers have been handed over to the presiding officers under the supervision of army personnel.

“641 candidates submitted their nomination papers for the by-elections but only 372 will be contesting in the by-elections,” the spokesperson further said.

By-elections 2018: Here are few guidelines to cast the vote

NA 131 Lahore

In Lahore’s NA-131, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Hamayun Akhtar and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Saad Rafique will face each other in by-elections.

The seat was earlier won by incumbent Prime Minister Imran Khan. The nation saw a tight contest between PTI’s Imran Khan and PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique. Khan won the seat by a slight margin of 680 votes in the general election held on July 25.

NA-124 Lahore

Meanwhile, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will face PTI’s Ghulam Mohiuddin in NA-124.

With 533,497 registered voters this constituency in Lahore was won by PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz Sharif who vacated it for a provincial assembly seat.

In Karachi, PTI is expected to face tough competition from its ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).

Overseas Pakistanis to vote online in October 14 by-elections

This will be the first time that overseas Pakistanis will cast their votes in the by-polls.