Pakistan’s election commission to release preliminary list of candidates
The Electoral Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will release the preliminary list of candidates contesting seats for the upcoming general election today.
The ECP started accepting nominations papers for the National (NA) and Provincial Assembly (PA) seats on Wednesday and is expected to conduct the scrutiny of nomination papers from 23-30 December, with the final revised candidacy list expected to be published on 11 January. The prospective candidates will contest 266 NA seats and 592 PA seats alongside 60 seats reserved for women, and 10 for non-Muslim candidates.
Currently, more than 80 candidates have obtained nomination papers from 5 constituencies of the PA. This includes former PMs Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, with both contesting elections in multiple constituencies. After being implicated in the Panama Papers case in 2017, Nawaz was disqualified from holding public office by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Similarly, Khan, currently facing jailtime on corruption charges, is awaiting the final verdict on his petition against the suspension of his three-year sentence. Therefore, it is entirely uncertain whether the two pollical figureheads will actually be able to contest for any seats, much less be able to secure a position helming the executive office.
