Pakistan Elections – Polling kicks of in over 85,000 stations

General Elections in Pakistan take place every five years that includes elections for National and provincial assemblies.

A Pakistani girl casts her vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. AAP Image/ AP Photo/B.K. Source: AP

Polling in the nation started at 8 am local time with more than a 100 million voters ready to cast their votes for their preferred candidate.

Out of 342 National Assembly seats, 270 seats are up for grabs while 570 seats for provincial assemblies.

Elections have been postponed in NA 103 Faisalabad, NA 60 Rawalpindi, while in provincial assemblies polling has been postponed in PK 99 DI Khan, PB 35 Mastung, PP 87 Mianwali, PP 103 Faisalabad, PK 78 Peshawar. In Sindh, Shabbir Bajarani has won the seat uncontested in PS 6 Kashmore.

A Pakistani casts his vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. . (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash) Source: AP

Several political leaders voted in the morning including PML-N President Main Shehbaz Sharif, PTI’s Asad Umar, PML-F’s Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman and PPP’s Khursheed Shah.

PPP’s Chairman Bilawal Bhutto’s sisters Bakhtawar Bhutto and Aseefa Bhutto shared the photo after voting in Nawabshah.

Up to 800,000 police and military forces have been stationed at more than 85,000 polling stations across the country ahead of the poll.

The election has largely boiled down to a contest between former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Khan is campaigning on populist promises to build a "New Pakistan", vowing to eradicate corruption, clean up the environment and construct a welfare state.