Past elections:General elections from 1954 to 1970
Between
1947 and 1958, there were no direct elections held in Pakistan at the
national level. Provincial elections were held occasionally. The West
Pakistan provincial elections were described as "a farce, a mockery and a
fraud upon the electorate"
The
first direct elections held in the country after independence were for
the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab between 10–20 March 1951. The
elections were held for 197 seats. As many as 939 candidates contested
the election for 189 seats, while the remaining seats were filled
unopposed. Seven political parties were in the race. The election was
held on an adult franchise basis with approximately one-million voters.
The turnout remained low. In Lahore, the turnout was 30 per cent of the
listed voters and in rural areas of Punjab it was much lower.
On 8 December 1951 the North West
Frontier Province held elections for Provincial legislature seats. In a
pattern that would be repeated throughout Pakistan's electoral history,
many of those who lost accused the winners of cheating and rigging the
elections. Similarly, in May, 1953 elections to the Provincial
legislature of Sindh were held and they were also marred by accusations
of rigging.
In April 1954, the general
elections were held for the East Pakistan Legislative Assembly, in which
the Pakistan Muslim League lost to the pan-Bengali nationalist United
Front Alliance.
- General Elections 1970
All
data and calculations are provided by Election Commission of Pakistan
as Public domain. The General elections in 1985 were non-partisan
general elections, but many technocrats belong to the one party to
another.
General elections from 1977 to 2013
After
the loss of East–Pakistan, the democracy return to the country. In
1977, the general elections were held but due to election violence
instigated by the right-wing PNA, the martial law took advance against
the left oriented PPP.
In
1988, the general elections were held again which marked the PPP coming
in power but dismissed in two years following the amid lawlessness
situation in the country. In 1990, the general elections saw the
right-wing alliance forming the government but dismissed in 1993 after
the alliance collapse. The general elections in 1993 saw the PPP forming
government after successfully seeking plurality in the Parliament.
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto made critical decisions during her era,
ranging from working to strengthening the education, defense, foreign
policy and pressed her policies hard to implement her domestic programs
initiatives. Despite her tough rhetoric, Prime Minister Bhutto's own
position deteriorated in her native province, Sindh, and lost her
support following the death of her younger brother. Tales of high-scale
corruption cases also maligned her image in the country and was
dismissed from her post by her own hand-picked president in 1996. The
1997 general elections saw the centre-right, PML(N), gaining the
exclusive mandate in the country and supermajority in the parliament.
Despite Sharif's popularity in 1998 and popular peace initiatives in
1999, the conspiracy was hatched against Sharif by General Musharraf,
accusing Sharif of hijacking the plane and pressed terrorism charges
against Sharif in the military courts; thus ending Sharif's government.
Ordered by the Supreme Court,
General Musharraf held general election in 2002, bearing Sharif and
Benazir Bhutto from keeping the public office. With Zafarullah Jamali
becoming the Prime minister in 2002, he left the office for Shaukat Aziz
in 2004. After the deadly 9/11 attacks in the United States and
Musharraf's unconditional policy to support the American war in the
Afghanistan, further damaged Musharraf's credibility in the country. In
an unsuccessful attempt to dismiss the Judicial system, Musharraf
dramatically fall from power. The 2008 general elections allowed the
PPP, assisted with the left-wing alliance, further consolidated in
opposition to Musharraf, though it was plagued with loadshedding, law
and order situation, foreign policy issues, and poor economic
performances. In recent elections held in 2013, the PML(N) won the
majority seats in the elections.
Political parties performances in General elections since 1977
All
data and calculations are provided by Election Commission of Pakistan
as Public domain. All elections were contested under a separate
electorate system, the 1990 elections had allegations of vote-rigging
confirmed by foreign observers. The 'MQM' contested the 1988 elections
under the name Muhajir Qaumi Mahaz, it boycotted the 1993 National
elections.
2008 General elections
This
election led to strong showings for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)
and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N), who signed the Bhurban
Accord in response to the election results.The election was held in
Pakistan on 18 February 2008, after being postponed from 8 January 2008.
The original date was intended to elect members of the National
Assembly of Pakistan, the lower house of the Majlis-e-Shoora (the
nation's parliament). Pakistan's two main opposition parties, the
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML
(N)) won the majority of seats in the election. The PPP and PML(N)
formed the new coalition government with Yosaf Raza Gillani as Prime
Minister of Pakistan.Following the election, Pervez Musharraf
acknowledged that the process had been free and fair. He conceded the
defeat of the PML (Q) and pledged to work with the new Parliament. The
voter turnout for the election was 35,170,435 people (44%). By-elections
for 28 seats (23 provincial and 5 national) have been delayed numerous
times, with most of them now held on 26 June 2008.
The Pakistani general election of
2013 was held 11 May. Problems with providing electricity was one of the
major issues with the winning candidate, Nawaz Sharif, promising to
reform electrical service and provide reliable service.
History of Presidential election: 1956 to 2013
Presidential elections since 1956
Promulgation
of 1956 constitution, Iskandar Ali Mirza became first President of
Pakistan; he was also noted of being the first East-Pakistani
Bengali President of Pakistan. In an indirect elections, the electors of
the Awami League voted for Mirza's bid for presidency in 1956. Wanting a
control democracy, President Mirza dismissed four prime ministers in
less than two years and his position in the country was quickly
deteriorated amid his actions. In 1958, Mirza imposed the martial law
under its enforcer General Ayub Khan, but was also dismissed the same
year. Assuming the presidency in 1958, Ayub Khan introduced a "System of
Basic Democracy" which mean, "the voters delegate their rights to
choose the president and the members of the national and provincial
assemblies to 80,000 representatives called Basic Democrats."
Under this system, the first direct
presidential election was held on January 2, 1965. Some 80,000 'basic
democrats', as members of urban and regional councils, caucused to vote.
There were two main contestants: Pakistan Muslim League lead by
President Ayub Khan and the Combined Opposition Parties (COP) under the
leadership of Fatima Jinnah. In this highly controversial election with
the means of using the state machinery to rigging the votes, the PML
secured a thumping majority of 120 seats while the opposition could
clinch only 15 seats. Fatima Jinnah's Combined Opposition Party (COP)
only secured 10 seats whereas NDF bagged 5 seats in East Pakistan and 1
in West Pakistan. The rest of the seats went to the independents.
Witnessing the events in 1965, the
new drafted constitution created the Electoral College system, making
the president as mere figurehead. In 1973, Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry became
the first president from the PPP in an indirect polling. With the
martial law remained effective from 1977 till 1988, civil servant Ghulam
Ishaq Khan ran for the presidency on a PPP ticket in a deal to
support Benazir Bhutto for presidency. With special powers granted to
President GI Khan, he dismissed two elected government during period
1990 and 1993; he too was forced out from the office the same
year. After the 1993 general election, the PPP nominated Farooq Leghari
who soon secured majority votes in the parliament. Originally elected
for five year term, Leghari was forced resigned from the presidency
after forcing out Benazir Bhutto from the government in 1996. In 1997
general election, Nawaz Sharif called for fresh presidential elections
and nominated Rafiq Tarar for the presidency. In an indirect election,
Tarar received heavy votes from the electors of Electoral College,
becoming the first president from the PML(N). In 1999 martial law
against Sharif, Musharraf self-pointed for the presidency in 2001. In
2004, he secured his appointment for presidency; though the opposition
and religious alliance boycotted the elections. In 2007, Musharraf again
restored his appointment after the opposition parties also boycotted
the elections. As Musharraf forced out from the power, Asif Zardari of
PPP became president after a close presidential elections in 2008.
In recent presidential elections held in September 2013 Mamnoon Hussain became the President of Pakistan.
In recent presidential elections held in September 2013 Mamnoon Hussain became the President of Pakistan.
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