Islamabad, Feb: More than 17,000 candidates will be contesting today's elections in Pakistan, Dawn reported.

Voters will elect 266 candidates to the Pakistan National Assembly, who will later, by a majority vote, elect the next prime minister.
Simultaneously, voters will also elect representatives to their respective provincial assemblies, who will then elect the provincial chief executives under a similar process.

Meanwhile, elections have been postponed in one national and three provincial assembly constituencies due to the deaths of contesting candidates. This includes NA-8 (Bajaur), PK-22 (Bajaur), PK-91 (Kohat) and PP-266 (Rahim Yar Khan). Voters elsewhere will cast two votes each -- one for each of the two assemblies.

In all, 17,816 candidates are in the running, of which 12,695 will be contesting for provincial assembly seats and 5,121 for the National Assembly, as per Dawn.

They include 16,930 males, 882 females and four transgender persons. Of these, 6,031 candidates -- 5,726 males and 275 females -- are contesting on a political party's ticket. The remaining 11,785 are contesting as independents, of which 11,174 are males, 607 females and four transgender persons.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's Caretaker Interior Ministry has established a control room to monitor the overall situation in Pakistan during the general elections, Pakistan Today reported.

The control room includes representatives of all relevant institutions, including the Interior Department, police and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to perform their duties in the control room. Furthermore, information sharing between law enforcement agencies and other relevant agencies is being ensured in this room, according to Pakistan Today report.

(ANI)

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