Voting for the presidential election has officially started.
The polling process for the presidential election will continue from 10 am to 4 pm, members of the National Assembly, Senate and Provincial Assemblies are casting their votes in the election.
When the polling process started in the National Assembly, the first vote was cast by Abdul Hakeem Baloch of People’s Party, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, presidential candidate Asif Ali Zardari, Chairman People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Ishaq Dar also cast their votes.
Former president Asif Zardari on behalf of the ruling coalition and nationalist leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai on behalf of the Sunni Ittehad Council and other opposition parties are candidates in the presidential election.
In the presidential election, Chief Justice Islamabad High Court has been appointed as the presiding officer for the Senate and the National Assembly, and Member of the Election Commission for the Punjab Assembly, Nisar Durrani.
Senator Sherry Rehman has been appointed as the polling agent of Asif Ali Zardari while Senator Shafiq Tareen is the polling agent of Mehmood Khan Achakzai.
The Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court for the Sindh Assembly, the Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and the Chief Justice for the Balochistan Assembly are the presiding officers of the Balochistan High Court.
Sindh Assembly building handed over to Election Commission
The Secretary Sindh Assembly has declared the house as a polling station for the presidential election and the Sindh Assembly building has been handed over to the Election Commission.
A total of 162 members have taken oath in the Sindh Assembly, the House has 116 from the People’s Party, 36 from the MQM and one from the Jamaat-e-Islami, while the number of independent members of the PTI-backed Sunni Unity Council is 9.
The ballot box and other equipment for the presidential election have been delivered to the Punjab Assembly, while District Election Commissioner One Abdul Wadud Khan and District Election Commissioner Two Anam Parveen have reached the Punjab Assembly.
Balochistan and Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Hall has been given the status of polling station
64 members of the Balochistan Assembly will be able to vote for the election of the President, special arrangements have been made in the Assembly in connection with the presidential election.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Hall has been given the status of polling station for the presidential election, Chief Justice Peshawar High Court Muhammad Ibrahim will be the presiding officer.
118 members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly will poll for the election of the President.
How to cast vote
The issue of casting votes in the presidential election is a bit complicated, each member of the lower house and the upper house will have one vote, but in the provincial assemblies, one vote of the assembly member of any other province except Balochistan will not be counted.
According to Clause 18(b) of Table 2 of the Constitution, ‘the number of votes cast in favor of each candidate in a Provincial Assembly shall be multiplied by the total number of seats in the Provincial Assembly which currently has the least number of seats. will be divided by the total number of seats in the Provincial Assembly in which votes have been cast’.
According to this table of the constitution, the House of Balochistan Assembly consists of the least number of members where there are 65 members. Thus, if the 65 members of Balochistan are divided among the 371-member House of Punjab, then 5.7 members of the Punjab Assembly will be considered as one presidential vote.
In the same proportion, one vote of 2.6 members will be considered in the house of 168 Sindh Assembly and one vote of 2.2 members will be considered in the house of 145 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
The presidential election will be by secret ballot in which a ballot paper will be issued to each member and the name of the member to whom the ballot paper will be issued will be registered while the ballot paper will be signed by the concerned presiding officer.
The names of the candidates shall be listed in alphabetical order on the ballot paper and the voting member shall vote by ticking the name of the preferred candidate.
In the presidential election, the candidate who gets more votes than his opponent will be considered successful.
As a result of the election, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will take oath from whoever is elected as the President of the State.
