At Least 30 Killed in Quetta Blast on Pakistan Election Day

An Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up outside a polling station in Balochistan’s Quetta on Wednesday.

(Photo Altered by The Quint)

Video Editor: Mohd Ibrahim

Pakistanis voted on 25 July in a tense election to choose a new government. On the day of the election, at least 35 people were killed in an ISIS suicide attack as well as poll-related violence.

Hours after the polling began for the general elections, an Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up outside a polling station in Balochistan's provincial capital, Quetta

Nearly 10.6 crore people were registered to vote for elections to the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies. The election marked only the second democratic transition of power in the nation's 70-year history.

Citizens queued up outside their respective polling stations as they opened.

Catch all the live updates on the Pakistan Elections here.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), 3,459 candidates were contesting for 272 seats of the National Assembly, while 8,396 candidates were running for 577 seats of the four provincial assemblies – in Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

More than 30 political parties fielded their candidates for the elections.

The contest was between Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Shehbaz Sharif’s PML-N and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s PPP.

Pakistan's National Assembly comprises a total of 342 members, of which 272 are directly elected. Among the rest, 60 seats are reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities. The members for these seats are selected later through proportional representation among parties with more than five percent of the vote.

The ECP was also criticised for deploying the Army at polling stations.

Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had however assured earlier that the Army would only perform a facilitative role in the polls and that the polling process was to remain under the control and authority of the ECP.

Controversy had also arisen over allowing militant groups to participate in the elections.

Some of the Pakistani extremist leaders were among the hundreds of candidates contesting the elections.

Among them were Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamat-ud Dawa's candidates who were fighting with an aim to make Pakistan a "citadel of Islam."

In the run-up to the elections, the country also witnessed a number of deadly attacks targeting candidates and campaign rallies, including one that killed dozens in Balochistan.

(With inputs from PTI)