Polling for by-elections on six general seats of the Senate has ended in the National Assembly as well as the Balochistan and Sindh assemblies.
In Islamabad, the PPP’s Yousuf Raza Gilani polled 204 votes and won the lone Senate seat from the capital against the Sunni Ittehad Council’s Ilyas Mehrban Chaudhry’s 88 votes. As per details, 301 votes were cast and nine rejected.
In the Sindh Assembly, 124 votes have been cast. Provincial Election Commissioner Shareefullah Khan acted as the presiding officer.
The PPP has clinched both the seats in the Senate belonging to the province. Jam Saifullah Dharejo has bagged 58 votes, and Aslam Abaro has got 57 votes. Shazia Sohail and Nazeerullah of the Sunni Ittehad Council both bagged four votes each. One vote was rejected.
In Balochistan, PPP’s Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo emerged victorious with 23 votes, PML-N’s Dostain Domki has won with 17, and JUI’s Shakoor Ghaizai clinched a seat with 16 votes. BAP’s Mubeen Khilji polled five votes.
In the Balochistan Assembly, 61 out of the total 62 members cast their vote. BNP-Awami leader Asad Baloch did not case his vote. During the previous assembly session, Baloch had announced a boycott of the presidential election as well as the Senate by-election.
By-elections are being held on one seat from Islamabad, two from Sindh, and three in Balochistan. For polling in the National Assembly hall, election commission official Zafar Iqbal has been appointed as the returning officer. The votes will be polled through a secret ballot till 4pm for which the National, Sindh, and Balochistan assemblies have been declared polling stations.
Furthermore, 311 members of the National Assembly are set to cast their vote for the lone general seat from Islamabad, for which the contest is between Ilyas Mehrban Chaudhry of the Sunni Ittehad Council and Yousuf Raza Gilani of the PPP.
Ali Musa Gilani is the polling agent for his father, Yousuf Raza Gilani, and PTI leader Amir Dogar is representing Mehrban of the SIC.
All the six senators elected today will serve for a term of three years. These seats had fallen vacant after the resignations of senators who were elected to the Upper House in 2021. Those who resigned from their Senate seats included Yousuf Raza Gilani, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Nisar Khuhro, Jam Mehtab, Prince Ahmad Umar and Sarfaraz Bugti.
For the three seats from Balochistan, seven contenders are in the race. Two of these three seats fell vacant after two lawmakers retired, including Tariq Hussain and Shakeel Ahmed Durrani from the PPP. Provincial election commissioner Muhammad Freed Afridi has been appointed the presiding officer.
The PPP’s Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo and PML-N’s Dostain Domki are in the running for the three seats, as well as BAP’s Kuhda Babar, Mubeen Khiljee among others.
Moreover, in Sindh, four contestants backed by the Sunni Ittehad Council and the PPP are vying for the two general seats of the Senate from the province. The PPP’s Aslam Abro and Jam Saifullah Dharejo are among the contestants against the Sunni Ittehad’s Shazia Sohail and Nazeerullah.
There are 116 members from the PPP in the Sindh Assembly and nine from the Sunni Ittehad. Each assembly member’s vote will be counted as one.
Voting instructions
As per the guidelines issued for the polls, a voter will have to inscribe ‘1’ in front of the name of the candidate he/she wants to vote for. If a voter wants to prefer one more candidate, they can write ‘2’ in front of the name.
If ‘1’ is found written in front of more than one candidate, the vote will be rejected. If there is no preference number mentioned in front of any candidate, in that case also the vote will not be counted.
A voter's vote will be canceled if a mark or writing identifying him/her is found on the ballot. A voter cannot take a mobile phone inside the polling booth.
