PESHAWAR: As part of general elections, 17.825 million people will exercise their franchise in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas today (Wednesday).

The Election Commission of Pakistan has set up 145,69 polling stations across KP and Fata.

Polling will be held for 39 National Assembly seats of KP and 12 of adjoining tribal areas, and 97 provincial assembly seats.

17.825m eligible to vote for 51 NA, 97 PA seats

The ECP has postponed elections in two provincial assembly constituencies, including PK-78 Peshawar and PK-99 Dera Ismail Khan, due to the killing of ANP candidate Haroon Ahmad Bilour and PTI nominee Ikramullah Khan Gandapur, respectively, in separate acts of terrorism.

A total of 722 candidates are trying their luck for 51 National Assembly seats in KP and Fata, including 419 for NA seats in KP and 303 for NA seats in Fata.

The highest number of 40 candidates is in NA-44 Khyber Agency II constituency.

Similarly, 1145 candidates are in the running in 97 provincial assembly constituencies.

Ms Ali Begum is the only women contesting election on a National Assembly general seat in Fata. She is a candidate in NA- 46, Kurram Agency.

Similarly, 16 women candidates have been contesting election for the general National Assembly seats in KP, whereas 34 women are in the running for the provincial assembly seats.

Radish Singh is the only non-Muslim candidate for a provincial assembly seat. He is contesting election in PK-75 Peshawar.

The election material, including ballot papers and ballot boxes, was handed over to the relevant presiding officers and other election staff across the province and Fata. The election material was later transported to polling stations.

The election staff members, including presiding officers and assistant presiding officers, were provided security by the Pakistan Army, provincial police, Frontier Constabulary and other law-enforcement agencies.

Of the total voters, 10.21 million are men and 7.612 million women. In total, 5,981 combined polling stations, 4,595 stations for men and 3969 stations for women have been established mostly in the government buildings, especially schools’.

The polling stations include 43,154 polling booths, 24,856 booths for men and 12,892 booths for women.

Similarly, a total of 14,569 presiding officers have been deputed in polling stations apart from 80,741 assistant presiding officers and 43,154 polling officers.

In KP (excluding Fata), 15.316 million people will exercise their voting right showing an increase of 3.05 million voters compared to 12.266 million in the previous 2013 polls.

The ECP has established 12,685 polling stations in KP, including 4,145 stations for men, 3,617 for women and 4,923 combined.

According to the polling scheme released by the ECP, there are a total of 8.705 million male and 6.610 female voters in KP.

A total of 37,587 polling booths have been established, including 21,372 for women and 16,215 for women.

Similarly, 126,85 presiding officers, 75,174 assistant presiding officers and 37,587 polling officers will perform duties at polling stations.

The highest number of registered voters is 1.693 million in Peshawar, whereas the lowest number of voters i.e. 38,176 is in the newly-created Kolai Palas Kohistan district followed by 55,481 voters in Kohistan and 60,963 voters in Lower Kohistan.

Keeping in view the number of voters, the largest constituency is NA-17 Haripur having 657,648 voters followed by NA-35 Bannu having 578,872 voters, NA-13 Mansehra I having 519,590 voters and NA-32 Kohat with 506,699 voters.

Similarly, the constituency with the smallest number of voters is NA-11 Kohistan having 154,620 voters followed by NA-37 Tank with 180,872 voters.

FATA CONSTITUENCIES: Following the merger of Fata in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through the Constitution (Twenty Fifth Amendment) Act 2018, the July 25th will be the last general elections under the present electoral structure in Fata.

In the future general elections, the number of constituencies of these tribal areas will reduce and will be counted among KP’s.

A total of 1,884 polling stations are established in the 12 NA constituencies, where 2.509 million people will exercise their right to vote.

The number of registered voters in these areas shows an increase of 77,1267 compared to the last 2013 general elections. There are 1.507 male voters and 1.001 female voters in these constituencies.

Of the 12 National Assembly seats, two each are in Bajaur, Khyber, Kurram and South Waziristan regions, whereas a single seat each is in the North Waziristan, Orakzai, Mohmand and six FR regions.

The highest number of 492,732 voters has been registered in Bajaur, including 288,958 (58.64 per cent) men and 203,774 (41.35 per cent) women.

Constituency wise, the largest number of 274,205 voters is in the NA-48 North Waziristan, followed by 265,217 and 255,579 voters in NA-44 Khyber Agency and NA-40, Bajaur Agency, respectively.

The smallest number of 145,872 voters is in the NA-50 South Waziristan.

According to the polling scheme, of the total 1,884 polling stations to be set up by the ECP, 1,058 will be combined, 450 for men only and 352 for women only.

In NA-47 Orakzai Agency, all 177 polling stations will be combined, where 523 polling booths will be established, including 279 for men and 244 for women.

A total of 1,884 presiding officers and 5,567 each assistant presiding officers and polling officers have been assigned election duties.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2018