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272 of 342 seats to the National Assembly 172 seats were needed for a majority |
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Turnout | 44.01 % ( 2.21%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Political parties representation in National Assembly.
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General elections were held in Pakistan on 18 February 2008, after being postponed from 8 January 2008. The original date was intended to elect members of the National Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Pakistan.
On 3 November 2007, President and Chief of army staff General Pervez Musharraf enacted a state of emergency; elections were initially postponed indefinitely. However, it was later stated they would be held as planned. On 8 November 2007, Musharraf announced that the election would be held by 15 February 2008, but the election date was changed to occur on or before 9 January 2008. Musharraf also suggested 8 January 2008 as the election date. Following the assassination on Benazir Bhutto of PPP, the Election Commission conducted a meeting and announced that "elections on 8 January were no longer possible and instead, the elections would take place on 18 February 2008."
President General Pervez Musharraf, conceded the defeat of his party and pledged to work with the new Parliament. Around 35.2 million people cast their vote and the voter turnout was 44.01%.By-elections for 28 seats (23 provincial and 5 national) was delayed numerous times, with most of them now held on 26 June 2008. Results indicated that the PPP and the PML-N secured the largest votes in the elections. Due to common mistrust on Pervez Musharraf, the two parties initially formed the coalition government with Yosaf Raza Gillani as Prime Minister of Pakistan. Within week, the PML-N left the coalition to lead the impeachment movement and to restore judiciary; the PPP instead formed a leftist alliance, containing MQM, ANP, and JUI(F).