A suicide bomber has killed at least 31 people near a polling centre today on the voting day in the western city of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.
The Islamic State militant group has claimed the responsibility of the attack. The security sources said the bomber drove his motorcycle into a police vehicle.The attack also wounded 35 people and several were reported to be in critical condition.
Pakistan has a total registered voter count of 105 million who were to put their vote into ballots for two seats in each constituency: one for the National Assembly (the lower house of the federal parliament) and one for their Provincial Assembly (which runs their provincial government). Pakistan has four provinces -Sindh (61seats), Balochistan ( 16 seats) Punjab (147 seats) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (39 seats)
There are 3,765 national assembly candidates, 85,000 polling stations and 110 registered political parties.
The election is touted to be a tough competition between two parties – Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and cricketer turned politician – Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). However, it is unlikely that any would win a majority.
This election is significant for Pakistan because it will mark only the second time that one civilian government has handed power to another after serving a full term.
The vote count has begun and the people’s verdict would be declared on 27 July.