Voting begins for Pakistan's general elections

ISLAMABAD - Polling for Pakistan's general elections started across the country on Thursday morning, said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Spokesperson of the ECP Syed Nadeem Haider told Xinhua that polling had started at 8:00 am local time (0300 GMT) without a delay, adding that the voting process would continue uninterrupted till 5:00 pm local time (1200 GMT).

People were seen rushing to the polling stations in the morning to cast their votes to elect members of the National Assembly, or the lower house of the country's parliament, which will form a new government for the next five years.

Polling for the four provincial assemblies is being held on the same day.

According to the ECP, over 128 million Pakistani people, or more than half of the country's total population, are eligible to vote in the general elections.

ECP announced that over 5,000 candidates will contest the 265 general seats in the National Assembly and over 12,000 candidates will be competing for the 590 general seats for the provincial assemblies in the four provinces, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh.

Originally, elections were to be held for 266 seats in the lower house, but the elections for one of the seats had been postponed due to the death of a candidate, according to the ECP.