Voting for the second phase federal parliament and provincial assembly elections has begun across the 45 districts of the country today.

Voters have arrived at their respective voting centres from 7 am to cast ballot to elect 128 House of Representatives (HoR) and 256 Provincial Assembly (PA) members.

The voting will continue till 5 pm.

Elections for 37 seats out of 165 HoR members and 74 seats out of 330 PA members were conducted in the first phase in November 26. The first phase elections were held in 32 districts.

The Election Commission has stated that it will start the combined vote counting of both phases of elections from today itself after completion of the polls.

As many as 12,235,993 eligible voters are exercising their franchise in their respective election centres affixed in 15,344 polling centres of 7,752 polling stations of 45 districts today.

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The completion of the second phase of elections will ensure a federal parliament at the centre and provincial assemblies in seven provinces as envisioned by the new constitution adopted in 2015. 

Since local elections have already been held, the country will have three layers of governance as envisioned by the constitution after Thursday’s elections

Over 200,000 security personnel have been deployed in the ground for the elections, according to Home Ministry.

The offices of the Chief Election Officers have stated that they will start counting of the votes from today evening in tight security arrangement.