February 18, 2008	Monday	Safar 10, 1429

PAKISTAN holds elections for the lower house of parliament and provincial assemblies on Monday.

Following are some facts about the elections:

— The election is for 272 National Assembly seats. Another 70 seats in the 342-seat National Assembly are reserved for non-Muslims (10) and women (60).

— Seats are allocated on the basis of population. Of the 272 National Assembly seats, 148 are in Punjab, 61 in Sindh, 35 in North West Frontier, 14 in Balochistan, 12 in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and 2 in Islamabad.

— There are about 81 million registered voters.

— Members of the assemblies are elected by secret ballot in direct voting in a constituency in a first-past-the-post system.

— The voting age is 18.

— Polls will open at 8am and close at 5pm.

— Turnout in the last election in 2002 was 41.7 per cent.

— The main parties contesting the election are: the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), sometimes called the PML-Q or Q League, which backs President Pervez Musharraf; the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto; and the Pakistan Muslim League-N of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, also known as the PML-N or Nawaz League.—Reuters