Electoral History of General Elections (1970-2013)
There are total 11 general elections including one non-party based held in pakistan from 1970 to 2013. These elctions are discussd sepataely in this booklet.
The 1970 Election
Background
Under the LFO (Legal Framework Order), the seats were distributed among the provinces based on their population. Similarly, the first direct general election based on ‘one person, one vote’ at the federal level for the National Assembly was held on December 7, 1970. However, the direct provincial elections were held ten days later on December 17, 1970. Due to floods and cyclone in coastal Bengal on November 12, elections to the nine national and 18 provincial constituencies affected by the calamity were held on January 17, 1971.
General Yahiya Khan made three important decisions in 1970 in relations to the general election.
(1). The issuance of the Legal Framework Order on March 30, 1970, which stated that the National Assembly formed after elections, would frame the constitution within 120 days or would stand dissolved otherwise;
(2). The dissolution of one unit of West Pakistan, and the restoration of four provinces such as Punjab, Sindh, NWFP (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa) and Balochistan on July 1, 1970. Balochistan got the status of a full province whereas other provinces were revived. There was no change in the status of FATA that continued to be governed by the President through the Governor of NWFP (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa). The LFO set forth details of the coming elections and provided for a unified election commission with five provincial election commissions.
(3). Population was made the principle of representation, and therefore on the basis of which East Pakistan got more than half seats in the National Assembly for the first time.
The Contending Parties
In 1970 elections, the major political contenders were the Awami League led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that dominated the election campaign there in East Pakistan and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in West Pakistan. Other political parties contesting the election were National Awami Party-Wali, Pakistan Democratic Party (PDP) and 3 divisions of the Pakistan Muslim League such as PML-Council, PML- Convention, and PML-Qayyum. There were also some religious Islamic parties in the electoral fray; these were the Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan (JIP), Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI), and Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP). Several other small parties also competed in the election in addition to independent candidates.
Election Results
The