ECP releases schedule, Senate polls on March 3

The national and provincial assemblies will be holding polling for Senate elections 2021 on March 3, as per the schedule released by the Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday.

According to the ECP schedule, polling will be held between 9am to 5pm.

Election Commission Secretariat for Islamabad Special Secretary Zafar Iqbal Hussain, Punjab Provincial Election Commissioner Ghulam Israr Khan, Sindh Provincial Election Commissioner Ejaz Anwar Chauhan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Provincial Election Commissioner Sharifullah and Balochistan Provincial Election Commissioner Muhammad Raziq were notified as the returning officers.

Under the election schedule, candidates will be able to submit their nomination papers between February 12 and 13, while the list of candidates will be released on February 14.

The scrutiny of candidates' nomination papers will take place on February 15 and 16, and candidates' objections will be dealt with on February 19 and 20.

Furthermore, the ECP will release the revised list of candidates on February 21, while candidates will have until February 22 to withdraw their papers for the Senate elections.

Also read: PTI may dominate, but not control Senate

It should be noted that 52 senators will retire on March 11; however, elections will be held for 48 Senate seats. Thus, the number of members of the upper house will become 100.

Elections for the Senate will be based on proportional representation and a single transferable vote.

The decision of secret or open voting will be taken after the decision of the reference pending in the Supreme Court (SC).

Polling will be held in Punjab and Sindh for 11 seats each, Balochistan and K-P for 12 seats each and Islamabad for two seats.

With a much-anticipated election just around the corner, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf seems poised to emerge as the largest party in the Senate.

However, the 28 seats it is likely to end up with will not be enough to dominate the 100-member upper house and the ruling party can encounter stiff resistance to persist as it tries to get its bills to sail through.

Half of the Senate’s current members will complete their six-year term on March 11, leaving 48 seats up for grabs.

While the upper house currently has a total of 104 members – half of whom retire every three years – the merger of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with K-P means the four seats reserved for the former will retire with the senators who hold them.