The Pakistani General Election of 2013 will be the next election to the 14th parliament of Pakistan. The government of Pakistan has announced elections to be held by May. In the general election, voting will take place in all parliamentary constituencies of Pakistan, to elect Members to seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament and to the four Provincial Assemblies (Punjab Assembly,Sindh Assembly, Baluchistan Assembly and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly). The current National and Provincial Assemblies will complete its constitutional term on or before March 16, 2013, five years after the first session of the National Assemblies elected during the 2008 general election. Elections must be subsequently held within 60 days of parliament having been dissolved.This will be the 11th general election for Pakistan since 1962, and potentially marks the first successful democratic transition between two elected governments. As of March, the Election Commission of Pakistan has put final touches to its preparations for the upcoming general elections. And one of those tasks was to procure over 500,000 ballot boxes and all relevant materials. The commission has also decided to employ the services of retired judges of the high court as permanent election tribunals in order to expedite the disposal of election-related cases. The commission will be appointing five tribunals in Punjab and three each in other provinces. Buildings are being hired for offices of these tribunals.
This election will mark an end to the third PPP lead government and the only democratic government to finish its term. For the general elections, the socialist-oriented PPP has allied with PML(Q), while on the conservative side, the PML has allied with PML(F) and Sunni Tehreek. Cricketer turned politician Imran Khan lead centrist PTI has allied with the Islamic Jamaat-e-Islami in the North western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while it will contest elections without any political ally in other three provinces.85.04 million registered voters in the country will elect close to 1000 members of the National and Provincial assemblies of Pakistan, who will further elect the Prime Minister of Pakistan at the national level and the Chief Ministers of Pakistan at the provincial level. On March 17, 2013 The National Assembly stood dissolved on completion of its five-year term under Article-52 of the Constitution.While the provincial assemblies are likely to be dissolved on 19th. The largest number of voters who will vote in the upcoming elections are within the 31 to 40 years age bracket. According to statistics available at the Election Commission’s website, 23.58% out of the total 87.5 million voters are of ages between 31 and 40 years while the second largest group of voters is between the ages of 18 and 25.