Polling in the PS-114 by-elections started early Sunday morning with five political parties running for the seat in the Sindh Assembly.

Candidates of the PPP, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, PML-N and Jamaat-i-Islami are contesting the elections being held in Karachi.

Senator Saeed Ghani from the PPP, Najeed Haroon from the PTI, Ali Akbar Gujjar from the PML-N, Zahir Jadoon of the JI and MQM's Kamran Tessori are competing for the seat.

With more than 190,000 registered voters in the constituency and 92 polling stations, the constituency consists of Karachi Administration Housing Society, Baloch Colony, Mehmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, Defence View and a block of PECHS.

The seat was won by the MQM in 1990, 1993 and 2008 elections but the party’s Rauf Siddiqi lost it to Irfanullah Marwat contesting on a seat of the multiparty alliance called National Alliance in 2013.

His victory, however, was declared void by the election tribunal in July 2014 and the Supreme Court in May 2017 dismissed Mr Marwat’s appeal challenging the election tribunal’s decision, thus paving the way for the by-poll.

While the PPP has put its full weight behind its candidate for Sunday's by-election, and MQM taking the contest as a test case after suffering the worst-ever organisational and political crises and PTI expecting to regain its 2013 popularity, political observers say that the results are not going to reflect the trend for the general elections due next year.

The parties currently in the opposition — the MQM, the PTI and the Jamaat-i-Islami — have already raised their reservations about the transparency of the by-poll, hinting at their expected reaction if results go against their hopes. After the recent decision by the Election Commission of Pakistan to deploy army troops and Rangers’ personnel inside and outside the polling stations, their fear of “rigging” on polling day has lost significance. But their reservations about “pre-poll manipulations” by the authorities can still cast doubts about the much-publicised by-election.