ISLAMABAD: The submission of nomination papers for contesting the upcoming general elections commenced on Wednesday, day after Returning Officers issued a public notice for nominations for national and provincial assemblies seats to kick off the electoral process for scheduled Feb 8, elections.
According to schedule issued by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the aspiring candidates could get and submit the nomination papers till 4:30 pm December 22.
On December 23, preliminary list of the candidates will be released while scrutiny of nomination papers will be held from 24th to 30th December.
As per the schedule, electoral symbols will be allotted to the candidates on January 13 and polling for the general elections will be held on February 8.
On the other hand, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued guidelines to candidates for filing nomination papers.
Latest data from the Election Commission of Pakistan shows that over 128.5 million registered voters will decide the fate of 175 political and religious parties, vying for 266 National Assembly (NA) seats and 593 Provincial Assembly (PA) seats in the elections 2024.
The ECP data reveals that out of the total registered 128,585,760 voters, 59,322,056 are female voters.
‘Fees’
The fee for obtaining a nomination form has been fixed as Rs100, and each candidate can submit a maximum of five nomination papers with different proposers and seconders. The non-refundable fee for submission of a nomination paper for a national assembly seat is Rs30,000 while for a provincial assembly seat, it is Rs20,000.
The fee for a nomination paper can either be submitted directly to the RO or through a bank draft in the RO’s name to any National Bank of Pakistan’s branch, with the receipt attached with the nomination form.
Nomination papers can be obtained from respective returning officers between 8:30am to 4:30pm from Dec. 20-22. Nomination papers need to be submitted with attested copies of computerized national identity cards of the candidates and their proposers and seconders, vote certificates issued by the concerned office of the district election commissioner, candidates’ income tax returns of the last three years and passports.
‘Eligibility’
The ECP has also issued a criterion for eligibility of contesting candidates for national and provincial assembly seats. A candidate should be a citizen of Pakistan who is at least 25 years old at the final date of filing of nomination papers. The candidate should be a registered voter in any part of Pakistan for the national assembly and of the province in which he or she is contesting for a provincial assembly seat.
It is mandatory for candidates of women’s reserved seats of the national assembly to be registered voters of that province and fulfill eligibility criteria mentioned in Articles 62-63 of the constitution, which deal with the qualifications and disqualifications of members of parliament.
The proposers and seconders of candidates contesting on general seats should be voters of the relevant constituency while proposers and seconders of national and provincial assembly women and non-Muslim seats should be voters of that province.
The proposers and seconders of candidates for national assembly seats of non-Muslims should be registered voters in any part of the country. The priority list issued by political parties for reserved seats needs to be attached with the nomination papers of the candidate while a special account for election expenses is required to be opened by the candidates in any scheduled bank, or details and bank statements provided of an already existing account.
