For Pakistan's elections on Feb 8, more than 28,626 candidates file nominations

Authorities in Pakistan announced Monday that at least 28,626 candidates have submitted their nominations to compete in the general elections scheduled for February 8. Four Provincial Assemblies and 1,085 seats in the National Assembly (NA) will be up for election. Details released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) indicate that 7,713 candidates—471 of whom are women—have submitted nominations to compete for 266 general assembly seats in the upcoming elections. For 141 NA seats in Punjab, 3,871 candidates—including 277 women—filed nomination papers; for the 61 NA seats in Sindh, 1,681 candidates—including 110 women—submitted nominations. At least 1,322 candidates, including 39 women, are contesting for 45 general seats in the National Assembly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) while 631 nominees, including 12 women, filed nomination papers against 16 NA seats in Balochistan. As many as 208 candidates, including 26 women, submitted nominations for three National Assembly seats in the federal capital. About 459 candidates filed nomination papers against 60 reserved seats for women in the National Assembly, including 195 from Punjab, 118 from Sindh, 97 from KP, and 49 from Balochistan. Also, 150 nominations, including 10 women, filed nominations against 10 reserved seats for non-Muslims in the National Assembly. Both women and non-Muslims can also contest on all 266 general seats apart from participating on the 60 and 10 seats reserved for them respectively. When it comes to the provincial assembly, at least 18,546 candidates, including 802 women, submitted their nominations for 593 general seats of the four provincial assemblies. For Punjab Assembly’s 297 general seats, 9,029 candidates have filed nominations, including 437 women. Another 4,265 candidates, including 205 women, filed nominations against 130 general seats of the Sindh Assembly, while 3,464 candidates, including 115 women, filed papers for 115 general seats of the KP Assembly and 1,788 candidates, including 45 women, submitted documents for 45 general seats of the Balochistan Assembly. Also, 1,365 candidates are in the run for 132 reserved seats for women in the four provincial legislatures. They include 601 against 66 seats in Punjab, 309 for 29 seats in Sindh, 321 for 26 seats in KP, and 134 against 11 seats in Balochistan. As many as 393 candidates, including 32 women, filed nominations against 24 seats reserved for minorities in provincial assemblies. The ECP data showed that 3,139 women (over 11 per cent) of the total 28,626 candidates have filed nomination papers for 2024 general elections across the country, far more than the number of women who submitted nominations for the 2018 and 2013 general elections. As many as 471 women, including Maryam Nawaz, filed nomination papers to contest elections on general seats of the National Assembly, while another 802 women are contesting on the provincial assemblies’ seats. For the seats reserved for women in national and provincial assemblies, 459 and 1,365 nomination papers were filed, respectively. The number of women candidates went up as compared to the last two elections as 1,687 women had filed nomination papers in 2018 general elections while a total 1,171 women in the 2013 elections. A total of 21,482 candidates had filed papers in the 2018 elections and around 28,300 in 2013 elections.

The ECP officials are scrutinising the documents and also accepting objections against the nominations. The process will continue till Dec 30. (With inputs from Agencies)