ZW News HD
Related Articles
Govt and opposition jointly field 11 candidates; polling will be held in Jirga Hall of KP Assembly
- Gandapur convinces four PTI dissidents to withdraw nominations.
- Khurram Zeeshan remains only dissident candidate in the race.
- A total of 25 candidates are in the race for Senate polls.
The swearing-in ceremony for the KP reserved seats MPAs on Sunday has opened the way for the long-awaited Senate elections. Now that the assembly is complete, the Senate elections will fill 11 empty seats. There will be a competition for seven general seats, plus two reserved seats each for women and technocrats. Voting will take place in the Jirga Hall of the KP Assembly, which has been set as the polling station by the Election Commission.
Understanding Pakistan’s Senate elections
To run for a Senate seat, candidates must be Pakistani citizens and registered voters in the province or region they want to represent. They must also meet the qualifications detailed in Article 62 of the Constitution, which cover issues like character and financial status. Unlike general elections, which use a ‘first past the post’ system (where the candidate with the most votes wins), Senate elections use a proportional representation method called the single transferable vote. This method aims to better show each party’s strength in the assembly. Voters rank candidates by preference. If a candidate gets more votes than needed, extra votes are given to the next preferred candidate. If no candidate meets the required votes, the one with the least votes is eliminated, and their votes are given to others. This process continues until all seats are filled.
How many votes required?
Voting for the Senate elections will be managed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Each MPA can vote three times. A white ballot will be for general seats, green for technocrat seats, and pink for women’s seats. To win one of the seven general seats, a candidate needs at least 19 votes. For reserved seats, candidates must get 49 votes each. In a rare show of cooperation, the PTI-led provincial government and the opposition have put forward 11 candidates—six from the government and five from the opposition.
The government has 92 MPAs in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, while the opposition has 53 members. The opposition aims to win three of the seven general seats but needs at least four more votes for the third seat. Meanwhile, of the five PTI dissidents who filed nominations, four have withdrawn, leaving Khurram Zishan as the only dissident candidate for a general seat.
Sources say that today seven groups are being created for the general seats. One group will be special, made up of members from both the government and opposition. This group will support PPP candidate Senator Talha Mahmood. Currently, he has only 15 votes from the opposition but with five more from the government, he can win, according to The News.
The government needs 76 votes to elect its four senators. After that, it will have about 16 votes left. Sources say that five votes will go to Talha Mahmood, which could be a game changer in this election. Reports indicate four groups are for government candidates and two for the opposition, but Talha Mahmood’s group will be the only mixed one.
Candidates in run
There are 25 candidates running in the Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), with voting happening today. For general seats, the government has put forward four candidates, and the opposition has three. For the reserved seats—two for women and two for experts—both sides have nominated two candidates each. The PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) is backing Murad Saeed, Faisal Javed, Mirza Mohammad Afridi, and Noorul Haq Qadri. Robina Naz and Azam Swati are also running as PTI candidates. The opposition candidates are Niaz Ahmad from PML-N, Talha Mahmood from PPP, and Atta-ul-Haq from JUI-F for the general seats. For the reserved seats, the PPP nominated Rubina Khalid, and JUI-F’s Dilawar Khan is also in the race.
