Pakistan Election 2008 - Updates

[zar qurban]

Polling begins for Pakistan general elections.
In three NWFP Assembly constituencies—PF92, PF81, PF59—the elections have also been postponed owing to the demise of candidates.

There are 2,234 candidates contesting for the 269 general seats of the national assembly, while 5,017 candidates are contesting for 570 seats of the provincial assemblies and elections in the 7 constituencies out of the 577 would be held later on.

There are 262 candidates for NA seats in NWFP; 179 candidates for 11 FATA seats; 34 candidates on two Islamabad seats; 999 candidates on 147 Punjab seats; 617 candidates on 60 Sindh seats and there are 43 candidates in Balochistan contesting on 14 NA seats.

There are 2272 candidates contesting for 293 seats of Punjab provincial assembly; 1468 candidates for 130 seats of Sindh Assembly; 736 candidates for 96 seats of NWFP Assembly and 541 candidates are contesting for 51 seats of Balochistan Assembly.

Click here for detail

[zar qurban]

like Peshawar city, the contest here again seems to be between ANP and PPP candidates in the districts of Buner, Swat, Shangla, Dir, Swat and Malakand. Among the four bigwigs of their respective political parties, ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan is contesting for NA-7 Charsadda-I and NA-12 Swabi-I, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman for NA-25 D I Khan and NA-26 Bannu, PPP-S Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao for NA-8 Charsadda-II, while PML-Q Provincial President Amir Muqam is vying to secure the seats of NA-4 Peshawar-IV and NA-31 Shanglapar.
Daily Times

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Election begins with rigging, violence and trouble

Not coming as much of a surprise, election starts off rather unpleasantly.
Last night PML-N candidate Ch Asif Ashraf was assassinated in Lahore. In addition an MQM candidate was fired at in Quetta. Much violence has been reported across the country especially in Balochistan.

Details to follow…

Source:Teeth Maestro.

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Starting with NWFP: The only story in the Frontier province is the fall in the fortunes of the fractious MMA. They had swept into power in 2002, promising to turn the Governor's house into a university, riding to parliament by bicycles rather than limousines, doing away with co-education and passing a Shariat law. None of this happened although they came close to imposing Shariah by passing the Hasba bill. If one person is representative of the political changes in the province over the last six years it would be Barrister Baccha, most well-known for his Shakespeare-quoting letters to the editor. A staunch Pashtun nationalist and life-long ANP activist, in 2002 he left the party for the MMA, primarily because of their anti-Americanism. Thoroughly disillusioned, he is back campaigning for the ANP. Remember, with the Jamaat-e-Islami boycotting the elections, MMA basically means Jamaat-e-Ulema-Islam - Fazl.
This time around, there is almost no doubt that an ANP-PPP coalition will form the provincial government, with the ANP as the dominant party. In the NA, they should get roughly the same number of seats.

PROJECTED WINNER PARTY
1 Peshawar I HajI Ghulam Ahmed Bilour ANP
2 Peshawar II Dr Arbab Alamgir Khan Khalil PPP
3 Peshawar III Noor Alam Khan PPP
4 Peshawar IV Arbab Muhammad Zahir Khan ANP
5 Nowshera I Muhammad Tariq Khattak PPP
6 Nowshera II Masood Abbas ANP
7 Charsadda I Asfandyar Wali Khan ANP
8 Charsadda II Aftab Khan Sherpao PPP-S
9 Mardan I Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti ANP
10 Mardan II Mohammad Farooq Khan ANP
11 Mardan III Abdul Akbar Khan PPP
12 Swabi I Asfandyar Wali Khan ANP
13 Swabi II Pervez Khan Advocate ANP
14 Kohat Malik Mohammad Asad IND
15 Karak Mohammad Ayub Khan Khattak PML-Q
16 Hangu Pir Haider Ali Shah ANP
17 Abbottabad I Sardar Mahtab Khan PML-N
18 Abbottabad II Murtaza Javed Abbasi PML-N
19 Haripur Umar Ayub Khan PML-Q
20 Mansehra I Lt Gen Syed Salahuddin Trimizi PML-N
21 Mansehra II Faiz Mohammad Khan PML-N
22 Battagram Niaz Mohammad Khan MMA
23 Kohistan Mehboobullah IND
24 D.I. Khan I Faisal Karim Kundi PPP
25 D.I.Khan/Tank Dawar Khan Kundi PPP
26 Bannu Maulana Fazlur Rehman MMA
27 Lakki Marwat Khalid Raza Zakori MMA
28 Buner Abdul Mateen Khan ANP
29 Swat I Mian Adnan Gul Aurangzeb IND
30 Swat II Mohammad Ayub Khan Advocate ANP
31 Shangla Amir Muqam PML-Q
32 Chitral Shahzada Ghulam Mohyuddin PML-Q
33 Upper Dir Najmuddin Khan PPP
34 Lower Dir Malik Azmat Khan PPP
35 Malakand Lal Mohammad Khan PPP

Source

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NA 26 Bannu

Maulana Fazlur Rahman is also contesting from Bannu, apparently due to fear of losing his native seat in Dera Ismail Khan. All the parties including PML-N, ANP, PML-Q, etc have joined hands to defeat him by supporting an independent candidate Malik Nasir Khan, who is former MNA and was once a star player in Pakistan's hockey team. Former MMA chief minister and JUI-F leader Akram Durrani is campaigning for him by reminding the electorate that all the development projects that he sanctioned for Bannu became possible due to the Maulana's backing. But his opponents are trying to discredit the Maulana by telling voters that he is an outsider and would abandon the seat and instead retain the one in Dera Ismail Khan.



In last election Mussarat Shaheen gave creeps to Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, and then threatened other political wigs. All of a sudden, she just vanished out of the scene. Then she popped up again, and this time, she played yet another master stroke. She merged her party with MQM of all parties. She is now with Altaf Hussain in London.
Originally Published at :

[DawezayMomand]

چارسدہ میں حلقہ این اے آٹھ میں گورنمنٹ ہائی سکول شیرپاؤ پولنگ سٹیشن پر سابق وزیرِ داخلہ آفتاب شیرپاؤ کے حامی اپنی مرضی سے تین تین چار چار کی ٹولیوں میں پولنگ سٹیشن میں جاتے ہیں اور ہر شخص کئی بیلٹ پیپرز پر مہر لگا کر بیلٹ باکس میں پھینک رہا ہے۔ جب میں نے پریزائڈنگ آفیسر کے سامنے سوال اٹھایا تو پہلے تو انہوں نے اعتراف کیا کہ یہ کارروائی غیر قانونی ہے لیکن اسی دوران آفتاب شیرپاؤ کے کارکنوں نے پریزائڈنگ آفیسر کو دھمکیاں دی تو انہوں نے اپنا بیان بدلتے ہوئے اسے محض افراتفری قرار دیا۔ اس پولنگ سٹیشن کی چھت پر سابق وزیرِ داخلہ کے
کارکن اسلحہ اٹھائے کھڑے ہیں۔

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/interactiv...s_log_si.shtml

[DawezayMomand]

In PF-83 (Swat) the supporters of JI started casting votes in favour of Dr Shamsher Ali (ANP). At the Dherai polling station, a bomb was dropped at the crowd from a vehicle but fortunately enough the bomb did not hit the crowd.

[DawezayMomand]

There have been some clashes between supporters of different parties at Baaloli polling station (near Wali Bagh). No casualties so far.

[DawezayMomand]

Sherpao's men have been fired at in Shabqadar and four of them have died. We still don't know who did it.

[DawezayMomand]

It is believed that ANP is on the lead in NA-8.