The voting for the senators from FATA and Islamabad is taking place at Parliament House. Photo: File

ISLAMABAD: Polling for the Senate elections went under way at 9am across the four provincial assemblies and National Assembly and is expected to conclude without a break at 4pm. 

A total of 131 candidates are contesting 52 Senate seats from the provinces, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the federal capital.

Rangers and Frontier Constabulary personnel have been deployed outside the provincial assemblies and Parliament.

The four provincial assemblies vote for their representatives, whereas the FATA senators are elected by the MNAs from the tribal areas and the Islamabad senators by the National Assembly members.

Interactive: The who?s who of the 2018 Senate race

Dive into the data for an in-depth look at the candidates for the Senate elections

A total of 20 candidates are contesting 12 seats from Punjab, 33 on 12 seats from Sindh, 26 on 11 seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 25 on 11 seats from Balochistan, 24 on four seats from FATA and five on two seats from Islamabad.

In the National Assembly, Federal Defence Production Minister was the first in line to cast the vote for the senators from Islamabad.

Code of conduct  

The Election Commission of Pakistan issued a code of conduct on Friday, according to which no one would be allowed to carry mobile phones in the polling stations while the assembly members would only be allowed inside if they will be carrying their secretariat cards.

Moreover, the code of conduct also asks the MNAs and MPAs to ensure the secrecy of their votes.

2018 Senate elections: What?s up for grabs?

Take a look at what's up for grabs in the key elections on 52 seats of Pakistan's upper house of parliament

According to ECP, the returning officer would be given the authority of a level one magistrate under which he or she would be able to announce a punishment immediately after carrying out a summary trial against the violators.

The returning officer would also have the authority to cancel a ballot paper and immediately announce a punishment if it is being handed to an unauthorised person.

The punishment for violating the code of conduct includes a fine of up to Rs100,000 and/or a jail term between six months and two years.