LAHORE: At least 173 candidates are in the run for by-polls for two National Assembly and 12 Punjab Assembly seats in the province polling for which will be held on April 21 (next Sunday).

These seats fell vacant after those successful contestants who had returned from more than one seats retained either the national or provincial assembly seats.

Of the total aspirants in the by-polls, 19 are vying for the National Assembly seats – NA-119 Lahore-III and NA-132 Kasur-II.

The Lahore constituency was vacated by Maryam Nawaz Sharif, who became Punjab chief minister as she had also returned to the Punjab Assembly from a constituency of the provincial house from Lahore. The Kasur constituency was vacated by PML-N president and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who had also won from a National Assembly seat from Lahore.

Whereas 154 candidates are contesting for 12 provincial assembly seats: PP-22 (Chakwal), PP-32 (Gujrat), PP-36 (Wazirabad), PP-54 (Narowal), PP-93 (Bhakkar), PP-139 (Sheikhupura), PP-147, PP-149, PP-158 and PP-164 (Lahore), PP-266 (Rahim Yar Khan), and PP-290 (Dera Ghazi Khan).

The Election Commission (ECP) says that more than 4.044 million registered voters will use their right to franchise for the 14 seats in the by-polls. Of them over 2.177m are men and over 1.867m women voters.

For them 663 polling stations will be set up for male voters, 649 for female and 1,289 common for both the genders.

An ECP official says that training of the polling staff is continuing in their respective districts.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2024