With 56m of the voters below the age of 35, and roughly 29m in the 36-45 bracket, Pakistan’s younger generations are in a position to heavily influence the results. There is also a marked gender imbalance in the electoral rolls, with women voters accounting for only 46 per cent of all registered voters.

Voters will elect 266 candidates to the National Assembly, who will later, by a majority vote, elect the next prime minister. Simultaneously, voters will also elect representatives to their respective provincial assemblies, who will then elect the provincial chief executives under a similar process. Elections have been postponed in one national and three provincial assembly constituencies due to the deaths of contesting candidates. These are NA-8 (Bajaur), PK-22 (Bajaur), PK-91 (Kohat) and PP-266 (Rahim Yar Khan). Voters elsewhere will cast two votes each — one for each of the two assemblies.

In all, 17,816 candidates are in the running, of which 12,695 will be contesting for provincial assembly seats and 5,121 for the National Assembly. They include 16,930 males, 882 females and four transgender persons. Of these, 6,031 candidates — 5,726 males and 275 females — are contesting on a political party’s ticket. The remaining 11,785 are contesting as independents, of which 11,174 are males, 607 females and four transgender persons.