ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday extended its deadline for filing nomination papers for general elections by two days, emphasizing that the extension would not affect the date of polling, which has been set for Feb. 8.

Returning Officers (ROs) on Tuesday issued a public notice for the filing of nomination papers for 266 national and 593 provincial assembly seats, formally kicking off the electoral process for general elections in which over 128.5 million registered voters will decide the fate of 175 political and religious parties in the 2024 election. 

As per the original schedule, the process to file nomination papers for national and provincial assembly seats commenced on Dec 20, with the deadline set to expire at 4:30pm today, Friday. However, in a press release on Friday, the electoral watchdog announced that the deadline had been extended until Sunday, Dec. 24 due to requests from political parties and to facilitate potential candidates.

“Election Commission is pleased to revise various stages of the Election Program for the General Elections to the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan … to facilitate the political parties and prospective candidates,” the ECP’s notice said.

It added that all other stages of the election schedule would remain in tact and polling “will be held on 8th February, 2024 as notified earlier.”

Once the Election Commission issues the election schedule, candidates have six days to file nomination papers with Returning Officers of their respective constituencies. A person is qualified to run for a national or provincial assembly seat if he/she is a citizen of Pakistan, at least 25 years of age and a registered voter.

Each person who is qualified to run in elections has to file nomination papers with attested copies of national identity cards of the candidates and their proposers and seconders, vote certificates, candidates’ income tax returns of the last three years and passports.

Once the deadline for submission of nomination papers passes, the returning officers get busy scrutinizing each nominee against the eligibility criteria and publishing a list of accepted nominations. These can be challenged by any candidate by filing an appeal with the respective tribunal of their constituency. This tribunal consists of two to three judges of the high court. 

Any validly nominated candidate can also withdraw their candidature by sending a signed notice to the RO on or before the withdrawal deadline set by the ECP.

A final revised list of candidates is then published after the withdrawal stage is complete and each candidate is then assigned an election symbol. 

After this, political parties choose their candidates in each constituency and send their certification to the Election Commission of Pakistan. Candidates belonging to political parties use the election symbol allotted to their party by the ECP, while independent candidates are allowed to choose from other available symbols.

According to the Representation of the People Act, 1976, polling is held at least 22 days after the list of candidates is finalized.