Polling on vacant seats of Senate gets underway

Polling commenced on Tuesday to elect thirty members of the Senate, with a total of 59 candidates competing for the vacant seats.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has already declared eighteen candidates as unopposed winners in Balochistan and Punjab. The remaining thirty seats are up for grabs in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh.

Voting began at 9:00 am in the National Assembly and three provincial assemblies, with polls scheduled to close at 4:00 pm. However, the Senate elections for 11 seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa may face delays if the Speaker of the KP Assembly fails to administer the oath to women and minority lawmakers-elect from the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) on reserved seats, as cautioned by the electoral body.

Distinctive colored ballot papers have been printed for the Senate elections: white for General seats, green for Technocrat seats, pink for Women, and yellow for Minority seats.

In a notable development, lawmakers from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) are set to vote for former federal minister Faisal Vawda in the Senate polls.