2015 Pakistani Senate election

2015 Pakistani Senate election

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52 of the 104 seats in the Senate of Pakistan 53 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Party PPP PML(N) Last election 41 14 Seats won 27 26 Seat change 14 12   Third party Fourth party   Party MQM PTI Last election 7 0 Seats won 8 6 Seat change 1 6
Chairman before election Nayyar Hussain Bukhari PPP Elected Chairman Raza Rabbani PPP

Senate elections were held in Pakistan on 5 March 2015 to elect the replacements for 52 retiring senators. Those retiring include chairman Nayyar Hussain Bukhari and deputy chairman Sabir Ali Baloch of the upper house. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the majority party in Senate, would lose 21 members, followed by Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz would lose 9 and Awami National Party would lose 6 members.^[1][2]

According to the schedule issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), nomination papers for the election were submitted on 12 and 13 February, while scrutiny of the papers was held on 16 and 17 February. The list of contesting candidates was issued on 25 February. Polling for the 52 seats will be held on 5 March. For 11 seats, each of the four provinces' polling will be held in the provincial capitals, while polling for seats from the federal capital and FATA will be held in the National Assembly. According to the ECP notification, in each province elections will be held for seven general seats, two seats for technocrats and Ulema and two reserved seats for women.^[3][4]

Elections are held indirectly; to win one seat in Senate, the candidates would require 52 votes from the Punjab Assembly, 24 from the Sindh Assembly, 18 from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and 9 from the Balochistan Assembly.^[5][6]