Editing Elections in Pakistan (section)

===Past elections===
Between 1947 and 1958, there were no direct elections held in Pakistan at the national level. Provincial elections were held occasionally. The [[West Pakistan]] provincial elections were described as "a farce, a mockery and a [[Electoral fraud|fraud upon the electorate]]."<ref>''Report of the Electoral Reforms Commission'', [[Government of Pakistan]], 1956</ref>

The first direct elections held in the country after independence were for the Provincial Assembly of the [[West Punjab|Punjab]] between 10 and 20 March, The elections were held for 197 seats. As many as 939 candidates contested the election for 189 seats, while the remaining seats were filled unopposed. Seven political parties were in the race. The election was held on an [[Universal suffrage|universal]] basis with approximately one-million voters. The turnout remained low: in [[Lahore]], the turnout was 30 percent of the listed voters, and in rural areas of Punjab it was much lower.

On 8 December 1951 the [[North-West Frontier Province (1901–1955)|North West Frontier Province]] held elections for Provincial legislature seats. In a pattern that would be repeated throughout Pakistan's electoral history, many of those who lost accused the winners of cheating and rigging the elections. Similarly, in May, 1953 elections to the Provincial legislature of [[Sindh]] were held and they were also marred by accusations of rigging.

In April 1954, the general elections were held for the [[East Pakistan Legislative Assembly]], in which the [[Pakistan Muslim League]] lost to the pan-[[Bengali nationalism|Bengali nationalist]] [[United Front (East Pakistan)|United Front]] alliance.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hrcpelectoralwatch.org/his_persp.cfm |title=Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Election |access-date=2006-05-18 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303195840/http://www.hrcpelectoralwatch.org/his_persp.cfm |url-status=usurped }}</ref> Incumbent Prime Minister of East Pakistan Mr. Nurul Amin lost his parliament seat to a veteran student leader and language movement stalwart Khaleque Nawaz Khan in Mr. Amin's home constituency Nandail of Mymensingh district. Nurul Amin's crushing defeat to the United Front alliance effectively eliminates Pakistan Muslim League from the political landscape of the then East Pakistan.

The [[1970 Pakistani general election]], was the first direct general election after independence of Pakistan from British India. After a decades-long struggle, the military government was forced to transfer power to democratically elected officials. In East Pakistan, the election was portrayed as referendum on self-governance for the Bengali citizens of Pakistan, who made up nearly 55% of Pakistan's population and were yet not given rights consistent with those of West Pakistanis.

The election was won by the [[Awami League]], having 167 seats out of 313, and [[Sheikh Mujibur Rahman]] was to be the first democratically elected [[Prime Minister of Pakistan]]. But the military government, at the request of opposition leader [[Zulfikar Ali Bhutto]], refused to transfer power to the elected Parliament, causing the beginning of the [[Bangladesh Liberation War]]. 
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Political parties' performances in general elections under military government(s)
|-
! Political parties !!  [[1970 Pakistani general election|1970]]!! [[1985 Pakistani general election|1985]]
|-
|[[All-Pakistan Awami League|Awami League]] (AL) || {{Composition bar|160|300|hex=#66FF00}} || {{Composition bar|0|345|hex=#66FF00}} 
|-
|[[Pakistan Peoples Party]] (PPP)|| {{Composition bar|81|300|hex=red}} || {{Composition bar|0|345|hex=red}}
|-
|[[Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan|Jamaat-e-Islami]] (JI) || {{Composition bar|4|300|hex=#00AAE4}} || {{Composition bar|61|200|hex=#00AAE4}} 
|-
|[[Pakistan Muslim League]] (PML) || {{Composition bar|9|300|hex=green}} || {{Composition bar|96|200|hex=green}}
|-
|[[Council Muslim League|PML (Council)]] (PML-C) ||{{Composition bar|4|300|hex=#006600}} || {{Composition bar|0|200|hex=#009000}}
|-
|[[Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam]] (JUI)||{{Composition bar|7|300|hex=#009000}} ||{{Composition bar|8|200|hex=#009000}} 
|-
|[[Convention Muslim League|PML (Convention)]] (PML (C))||{{Composition bar|0|300|hex=#009000}} 
|-
| [[National Awami Party (Wali)]] (NAP(W))|| {{Composition bar|6|300|hex=red}} || {{Composition bar|2|200|hex=red}}
|-
| [[Pakistan Democratic Party]] (PDP)||{{Composition bar|1|300|hex=blue}} ||{{Composition bar|0|200|hex=blue}}
|-
|Independents||{{Composition bar|16|300|hex=#536872}} ||{{Composition bar|33|200|hex=#536872}}
|-
!Total Seats
|-
| Total seats in [[Parliament of Pakistan|State Parliament]] ||300 ||200
|-
![[Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan|Chief Election Commissioner(s)]] 
| [[Abdus Sattar (president)|Abdus Sattar]] || [[Karam Elahi Chohan|Karam Illahi Chohan]]
|-
|Elections under President(s) 
| [[Yahya Khan]] || [[Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq|Zia-ul-Haq]]
|-
!Voter turnout
| 63%.0|| 52.9%
|}
All data and calculations are provided by [[Election Commission of Pakistan]] as the public domain. The general elections in 1985 were non-partisan general elections, but many technocrats belonged to the one party to another.