Three candidates are vying for the vacant general Senate seat from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the by-elections being held today in the KP Assembly.
The seat fell vacant following the disqualification of PTI leader Shibli Faraz, leader of the opposition in the Senate, after being convicted in cases related to the May 9, 2023 riots.
Although there are three candidates in the race for the polls, the contest is expected to be between PTI-backed independent candidate Khurram Zeeshan and opposition-backed Taj Mohammad Afridi.
Irfan Saleem, another candidate in the PTI-backed electoral roll, covers for the Zeeshan candidate.
Voting, which began at 9:30 a.m., will continue until 4:00 p.m. The provincial electoral commissioner, Saeed Gul, is the returning officer of the polls.
A total of 145 KP lawmakers are eligible to cast their votes for the Senate seat, with a minimum of 75 votes needed to win.
Three votes have been cast so far.
Two other candidates, independent Abid Khan Yousafzai and Nisar Khan of the PPP, withdrew their candidature.
Yesterday, a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court dismissed Faraz’s lawyer’s request to suspend today’s elections.
Faraz had challenged his disqualification and subsequent denotification as a senator before the Peshawar High Court (PHC). However, earlier this month, the PHC denied him and two MNAs any relief, allowing the ECP to fill the vacant posts, and instead ordered them to first surrender before the appropriate court.
