PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif is contesting against SIC’s candidate Omar Ayub Khan for PM elections in NA today
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly session to elect the country’s 24th prime minister has begun after over an hour’s delay with members of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) creating a ruckus by chanting slogans.
The session is being chaired by National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and the voting for the prime minister’s seat will take place through the division method.
Ahead of the elections today, bells will ring in the National Assembly for five minutes. Its purpose is to gather all the members into the assembly.
After five minutes, all the doors of the House will be locked and no one will be allowed to come inside or leave before the election of the leader of the House.
Following this, the NA speaker will read out the names of the candidates vying for the PM slot and then will announce the formal commencement of the election.
As per the division method, the speaker will allocate the right lobby for one nominee and the left lobby for the other. The lawmakers will then go to their preferred lobby to vote for their candidate.
The MNAs will cast their votes at the door of the lobby and once they vote they will exit the hall and won’t be able to come back to the House.
The speaker will announce the completion of the voting process and will summon the voting list. After this, the bells will be rung for two minutes for members to return to the House from the lobby.
After this, Speaker Sadiq will announce the election results of the Leader of the House.
Candidates
Shehbaz, who is also the joint candidate of seven allied parties, is a clear favourite in the one-on-one contest against Omar Ayub Khan, who is the candidate of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) — the party which was joined by winning Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) affiliated candidates after the February 8 elections.
NA Speaker Sadiq accepted the nomination papers of both candidates. To win the premiership, either candidate will have to bag 169 votes in the 336-strong assembly.
