Pakistan
Polling time finished in assemblies for presidential elections
The house of Sindh assembly declared as the polling station for the presidential elections.
Islamabad: The polling process has finished in the four provincial and national assemblies for the presidential elections.
According to the details, the polling for the presidential elections' arrangements and preparations had been completed in the assemblies and the members had come to cast vote. Empty ballot boxes were shown in the polling station before the polling began.
Senator Sherry Rehman was the polling agent of the presidential candidate Asif Ali Zardari while senator Shafique Tareen was the polling agent of the other presidential candidate Mahmood Khan Achakzai.
Pakistan Peoples party's (PPP) president, nominated candidate for presidency Asif Zardari and the prime minister Shehbaz Sharif had casted their vote for presidential elections.
Shahbaz Sharif, Bilawal Bhutto, Hanif Abbasi, Senator Irfan Siddiqui, Khurshid Shah, Dawer Kundi, Mushahid Hussain Syed, Taj Haider, Aamir Dogar, Amir Muqam and other members of parliament were present in the house.
On this occasion, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) senators had reached the house by shouting slogans of founder PTI Imran Khan.
The first vote for the presidential elections was casted by the former member of the national assembly Abdul Hakeem Baloch. Earlier, the Election Commission staff had reached the national assembly hall and had converted the hall into a polling station.
The polling equipment was delivered to the polling station established in the national assembly. Two polling screens had been set up in the polling station with ballot boxes.
Two counters had been set up in the national assembly hall for voters. Voters whose names start with the alphabetic letter A to N had to cast vote at counter one.
Officials stated that the building of the Sindh assembly had been handed over to the Election Commission where polling for the presidential election had continue from 10am to 4pm. One vote will be counted for 2.5 seats in Sindh assembly.
However, collectively 162 members have taken oath in Sindh assembly. The house has 116 members from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), 36 from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), one from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and 9 independent members supported by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
On the other hand, the ballot box and other items were delivered to the Punjab assembly for the presidential election, after which Abida Rasheed of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) casted the first vote.
Officials performing the duties of polling officer of the Election Commission had also reached the assembly.
In the Punjab assembly, Ali Haider Gillani was the polling agent of Asif Zardari and Mahmood Khan Achakzai's polling agent Mushtaq Ahmed Khan.
Apart from that, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly hall had also been given the status of a polling station. Chief justice Peshawar High Court (PHC) Muhammad Ibrahim was the presiding officer.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly’s 118 members had cast vote for presidential elections whereas the Balochistan assembly’s 64 members had also cast their vote for which special arrangements had been made in assembly.