The general elections taking place on the 8th February in Pakistan, will see 266 general seats filled, forming the National Assembly in a first-past-the-post system. Sixty seats are reserved for women and ten for minorities in the lower house, of the South Asian country, which are allotted on a basis of five percent proportional representation.
Following the latest digital census, the constituencies underwent a delimitation process, resulting in a change of boundaries and a reduction of six seats compared to the previous 272 general seats.
In the National Assembly of Pakistan, Punjab will have a total of 173 seats, Sindh 75, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 55 and Balochistan 20. The federal capital will have three general seats. In the wake of elections, the National Assembly will elect its speaker, deputy speaker and the leader of the house.
PM of Pakistan
To be a candidate for prime minister, one has to be a Muslim and above the age of twenty-five years. As the first measure, the candidate has to be proposed for the office of prime minister by any fellow Member of National Assembly. The nomination then has to be seconded by any another lawmaker. The candidate thus has to have a proposer and a seconder.
As per the rules, before voting commences, the Speaker shall direct that the bells be rung for five minutes to enable members not present in the Chamber to be present. Immediately following the bells stop ringing, all the entrances in the Lobby shall be locked and the Assembly staff posted at each entrance shall not permit any entry or exit through those entrances until the voting has ended.
Then, the Speaker shall read out to the Assembly the names of the validly nominated candidates who have not withdrawn, hereinafter referred to as the contesting candidates, in the order in which their nomination papers were received and proceed to hold the elections in accordance with the procedure set out in the Second Schedule.
After that the Speaker shall ask the legislators who wish to vote in favour of the candidate[s] to pass in single file through the entrance where tellers shall be posted to record the votes. On reaching the desk of the tellers, each MNA shall, in turn, call out the division number allotted to him [or her] under the rules.
The tellers shall then mark off his [or her] number on the division list, simultaneously calling out the name of the lawmaker. ln order to ensure that his [or her] vote has been properly recorded, the member shall not move off until he [or she] has clearly heard the teller call out his [or her] name. After a member has recorded his [or her] vote, he [or she] shall not return to the Chamber until bells are rung.
At the end, When the Speaker finds that all the members who wished to vote have recorded their votes, he shall announce that the voting has concluded. Thereupon the Secretary shall cause the division list to be collected, count the recorded votes and present the result of the count to the Speaker.
The Speaker shall then direct that the bells be rung for 120 seconds to enable the MNAs to return to the Chamber. After the bells stop ringing, the Speaker shall announce the result of the elections. lf there is only one contesting candidate and he [or she] secures the votes of the majority of the total membership of the National Assembly, the Speaker shall declare him [or her] to have been elected.
However, if there is only one contesting candidate and he [she] fails to secure the votes of the majority of the total membership of the Assembly, all proceedings shall commence afresh.
And, if there are two or more contesting candidates and if no contesting candidate secures such majority in the first poll, a second poll shall be held between the candidates who secure the two highest numbers of votes in the first poll and the candidate who secures a majority of votes of the members present and voting shall be declared to have been elected as Prime Minister.
But if the number of votes secured by two or more candidates securing the highest number of votes is equal, further poll shall be held between them until one of them secures a majority of the votes of the members present and voting.
