Election 2024: Independents dominate polls as results trickle in following hours-long delay
Key Highlights of the 2024 Elections Compared to 2018.
ISLAMABAD: All eyes are on the television with political parties, independent candidates as well as voters fastening their seatbelts as the much-awaited unofficial and unconfirmed results for the general elections 2024 have started pouring in.
Despite the suspension of mobile phone and internet services, a large number of people across the country exercised their right to vote to elect their representatives for national and provincial assemblies — on 855 constituencies — in the world’s fifth-biggest democracy.
The 2024 elections surpassed the previous ones in 2018 in various aspects, including a record budget allocation of Rs48 billion, a substantial increase in the number of voters exceeding 50% of the total population, an unprecedented ratio of independent candidates, a total of nearly 18,000 candidates, and a substantial amount of paper required for printing 260 million ballots.
More than 1.4 million polling staff performed their duties at 90,675 polling stations — of which 16,766 were declared as extremely sensitive. To ensure voter turnout, February 8 was declared as a public holiday.
The polling, which kick-started at 8am, continued till 5pm throughout the country with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) deciding against extending the time for polling despite reports of irregularities from multiple constituencies and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) requesting an extension in the polling time.
The Interior Ministry, early Thursday morning, suspended cellular services citing the security situation. The country witnessed a largely peaceful polling process, however, a terror attack in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, martyred four policemen.
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The election results were expected to be completed a few hours after midnight and the complete compilation might be done in the early hours of Friday — through the ECP’s Result Management System.
However, an ordinate delay is being witnessed in the release of unofficial results.
Asad Qaiser clinches victory in NA-19 Swabi
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed independent candidate and former speaker of National Assembly Asad Qaiser has clinched victory in NA-19 Swabi in the general election 2024.
According to unofficial results, the PTI-backed independent candidate Asad Qaiser bagged 115,635 votes followed by JUI candidate Fazal Ali with 45,567 votes.
Earlier, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed independent candidate Barrister Gohar Ali Khan cliched victory in NA-10 Buner in the general election 2024, ARY News reported.
According to unofficial results, the PTI-backed independent candidate Barrister Gohar Ali Khan bagged 110,023 votes followed by Awami National Party (ANP) candidate Abdul Rauf with 30302 votes.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed independent candidate Malik Muhammad Aamir Dogar clinched victory against Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) patron-in-chief Jahangir Tareen in NA-149 Multan.
The PTI-backed – independent candidate bagged 143613 votes over the IPP’s Jahangir Khan Tareen, who managed to get 50166 votes.
A daylong polling process concluded on Thursday for the General Election 2024 overall in a peaceful manner, with active participation from all age group voters who came out in droves to elect candidates of their choice.
The polling started simultaneously across the country at 8 am and continued till 5 pm without any break to provide maximum time to citizens to exercise their right to vote enshrined in the constitution.
The voters present in the premises of the polling stations at the poll-ending time were allowed to cast their votes, said a spokesperson for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
According to the ECP, over 128 million registered voters were scheduled to exercise their democratic right by casting votes for candidates participating in elections for the national and provincial legislatures.
The polling was held for 265 seats of the National Assembly and 590 seats of provincial assemblies. The voting took place on 51 seats of the Balochistan Assembly, 128 out of 130 seats of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, 296 out of 297 seats of the Punjab Assembly and 130 seats of the Sindh Assembly.
The polling was held in 855 constituencies out of 859 however due to the death of the candidate, voting will not be held in NA 8, PP 266, PK 22 and PK 91.
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