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Elections in Pakistan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pakistan |
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At the national level, Pakistan elects a bicameral legislature, the Parliament of Pakistan, which consists of a directly-elected National Assembly of Pakistan and a Senate whose members are chosen by elected provincial legislators. The Prime Minister of Pakistan is elected by the National Assembly. The President of Pakistan is elected by the Electoral College of Pakistan, which consists of both houses of Parliament together with the provincial assemblies.
In addition to the national parliament and the provincial assemblies, Pakistan also has more than five thousand elected local governments.
Pakistan has a multi-party system, with numerous parties. Frequently, no single party holds a "majority", and therefore the parties must form alliances during elections to then negotiate the formation of "coalition governments".
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On January 1, 2004, Gen. Pervez Mushaaf won 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to 'Article 41(8)' of the Constitution of Pakistan, was "deemed to be elected" to the office of President until October, 2007. (See Pakistan Gives Musharraf Confidence Vote as President; New York Times; January 1, 2004)
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Shaukat Aziz was elected Prime Minister on August 27, 2004, by a vote of 191 to 151 in the National Assembly of Pakistan, and was sworn in on August 24, 2004.
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| % of popular vote | Seats | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) | 25.7 | 126 | |
| Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians | 25.8 | 81 | |
Muttahhida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan
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11.3 | 63 | |
| Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Sharif) | 9.4 | 19 | |
| Muttahida Qaumi Movement | 3.1 | 17 | |
| National Alliance | 4.6 | 16 | |
| Pakistan Muslim League (Functional Group) | 1.1 | 5 | |
| Pakistan Muslim League (Junejo) | 0.7 | 3 | |
| Pakistan People's Party (Sherpao) | 0.3 | 2 | |
| Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf | 0.8 | 1 | |
| Pakistan Awami Tehrik (Pakistan People's Movement} | 0.7 | 1 | |
| Jamhoori Wattan Party (Republican National Party) | 0.3 | 1 | |
| Pakistan Muslim League (Zia-ul-Haq Shaheed) | 0.3 | 1 | |
| Pakistan Democratic Party | 0.3 | 1 | |
| Balochistan National Party | 0.2 | 1 | |
| Awami National Party | 1.0 | - | |
| Pakhtun-khwa Milli Awami Party | - | 1 | |
| Independents | - | 3 | |
| Non-partisans (most joined one of the above parties) | 14.1 | 21* | |
| Female elected members (included in party seats above) | . | 60* | |
| Minorities (included in party seats above) | . | 10* | |
| Total (turnout 41.8 %) | 342 | ||
| Source: Pakistan Electoral Commission & CIA Factbook
* Not included in total. Except for three independents, most of these are included in the party-seat numbers |
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Pakistani presidential elections
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In the period between 1947-1958, there were no direct elections held in Pakistan at the national level. Provincial elections were held occasionally. The West Pakistan provincial elections were described as "a farce, a mockery and a fraud upon the electorate" ('Report of the Electoral Reforms Commission', Government of Pakistan, 1956).
The first direct elections held in the country after independence were for the provincial Assembly of the Punjab between March 10-20, 1951. The elections were held for 197 seats. As many as 939 candidates contested the election for 189 seats, while the remaining seats were filled unopposed. Seven political parties were in the race. The election was held on an adult franchise basis with approximately one-million voters. The turnout remained low. In Lahore, the turnout was 30 per cent of the listed voters and in rural areas of Punjab it was much lower.
On December 8, 1951, the North West Frontier Province held elections for Provincial legislature seats. In a pattern that would be repeated throughout Pakistan's electoral history, many of those who lost accused the winners of cheating and "rigging" the elections. Similarly, in May, 1953 elections to the Provincial legislature of Sindh were held and they were also marred by accusations of rigging. In April, 1954, elections were held for the East Pakistan Legislative Assembly, in which the 'Pakistan Muslim League' lost, and Bengali nationalists won. [1]
On January 7, 1977, Prime Minister Bhutto announced snap elections, and the general elections to the provincial and national assemblies were held on March 7 and 10, 1977, respectively. To many, the quick election date was arranged so as not to give sufficient time to the opposition in order for it to make decisions and arrangements in regard to the forthcoming elections. The total number of registered voters in the country was put at 30,899,052.
On January 11, 1977, all major and some minor opposition parties had cobbled together an electoral alliance, the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA), to contest elections against Bhutto’s PPP.
The official turnout figure was 63 percent – if 19 uncontested seats were discounted, the turnout was 80 percent (the 'PNA' boycotted the Balochistan elections because of an ongoing military operation). The 'PPP' won 58.1 percent of all the votes that were cast, and 136 of the 173 contested NA seats. The 'PNA' won only 35.1 per cent of the vote and 36 seats. 'PPP' had already won 19 NA seats unopposed including the home seat of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Larkana. The 'PNA' levelled allegations of massive vote-rigging and boycotted the provincial elections.
| Party | Punjab | Sind | NWFP | Balochistan | Islamabad | Tribal Areas | Total |
| Pakistan Peoples Party | 107 (93%) | 32 (74%) | 8 (31%) | 7 (100%) | 1 (100%) | 0 | 115 (77.5%) |
| Pakistan National Alliance | 8 (7%) | 11 (26%) | 17 (65%) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36 (18%) |
| Independent | 0 | 0 | 1 (4%) | 0 | 0 | 8 (100%) | 9(4.5%) |
| Total Seats | 115 | 43 | 26 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 200 |
Source: 'Overseas Weekly Dawn' (March 13, 1977), reprinted in 'Shahid Javed Burki, Pakistan under Bhutto, 1971–1977' (London, 1980), p. 196.
| Party | 1988 | 1990 | 1993 | 1997 |
| Pakistan Peoples Party | 93 | 44 | 89 | 18 |
| Islami Jamhoori-Ittihad (IJI) | 54 | 106 | 0 | 0 |
| Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) | - | - | 73 | 137 |
| Awami National Party | 2 | 6 | 3 | 10 |
| Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)* | 13 | 15 | - | 12 |
| Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam (Fazlur Rehman) | 7 | 6 | - | 2 |
| Other Parties/Indepenents ** | 38 | 30 | 42 | 28 |
| Total Turnout | 43.07% | 45.46% | 40.28 | 35.42 |
| Total Seats | 207 | 207 | 207 | 207 |
N.B: All elections were contested under a separate electorate system, the 1990 elections had allegations of vote-rigging confirmed by foreign observers. For more information, see "How an election was stolen" The Pakistan Democratic Alliance White paper on the Pakistan elections held in 1990. It was published by the weekly 'MID Asia', Islamabad, 1991. The 'MQM' contested the 1988 elections under the name Haq Parast group, it boycotted the 1993 National elections.
(source Herald Election Guide/October 2002 p38)
- Senate of Pakistan
- National Assembly of Pakistan
- President of Pakistan
- Prime Minister of Pakistan
- Speaker of National Assembly
- Deputy Speaker of National Assembly
- List of political parties in Pakistan
- Provincial Assembly of the Balochistan
- Provincial Assembly of the Punjab
- Provincial Assembly of the Sindh