ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) released statistics on the candidates who filed nomination papers for the upcoming February 8, 2024, general elections, outlining the number of accepted and rejected submissions.
Among the National Assembly seats in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the federal capital, the apex electoral body greenlit 6,449 candidates, comprising 6,094 men and 355 women. Meanwhile, 1,024 applications (934 men and 90 women) for NA seats were dismissed by the returning officers (ROs) during the scrutiny phase, out of the total 7,473 submissions, including 445 from women.
For the four provincial assemblies, ROs accepted 16,262 nomination papers out of 18,478 applicants, consisting of 17,670 men and 808 women.
Validly nominated candidates General Seats – GE-2024#ECP #GeneralElections2024 pic.twitter.com/tVnqj67K3x
— Election Commission of Pakistan (OFFICIAL) (@ECP_Pakistan) January 1, 2024
Overall, the ECP approved nomination papers of 22,711 candidates for both NA and provincial assembly seats, with 21,684 men and 1,027 women, from a total of 25,951 submissions.
The commission highlighted that 3,240 candidates, including 3,015 men and 225 women, faced rejection from both national and provincial assemblies. Additionally, 2,216 submissions, comprising 2,081 men and 135 women, failed to gain ROs’ approval for provincial assemblies.
During the five-day scrutiny period starting on December 25, prominent figures like Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and others from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) faced setbacks as their nomination papers for various constituencies were rejected.
On the other hand, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders such as Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shehbaz Sharif, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, and others successfully secured ECP’s approval for their nomination papers, marking a significant achievement.
(Islamabad51_Newsdesk)