The voting process for the Senate elections in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly resumed after a brief halt on Monday.

The voting was stopped due to differences between the government and the opposition over the seat allocation formula and other related issues, sources said.

A high-level meeting attended by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, Opposition Leader Dr Ibadullah, provincial ministers, and key members of opposition parties held talks to resolve the differences.

Later, the voting process resumed, but was extremely slow. By 1.30pm, only 17 votes had been cast. Of these, seven were from the government and 10 from the opposition.

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All 145 members of the provincial assembly will cast their votes in the elections today.

The opposition has 53 members in the provincial assembly, while the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has 92 seats.

Elections are being held for 11 Senate seats, including seven general seats, two women’s seats and two reserved seats for technocrats.

It should be noted that an agreement was reached on Sunday between the government and the opposition on the distribution of seats, under which the government has been given six seats and the opposition five.

The Election Commission has issued an election code of conduct for polling.

According to the said code of conduct, there will be a complete ban on the use of mobile phones or any type of electronic device in polling stations, while taking pictures of ballot papers has also been strictly prohibited.

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An important meeting was also held between the government and the opposition before the polling, which was attended by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Opposition Leader Dr Ibad. The meeting reviewed preparations for the Senate elections.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Gandapur said that the buying and selling of votes in the Senate elections cannot be justified under any circumstances.

“Both sides have agreed on a formula under which six seats will be given to the government and five to the opposition,” he added.

Meanwhile, four of the five disgruntled PTI candidates have announced their withdrawal from the Senate elections.

Those who withdrew included Waqas Orakzai, Irshad Hussain, Irfan Saleem and Ayesha Bano.

Irshad Hussain wrote a formal letter to the Election Commission requesting the withdrawal of his nomination papers and said that this decision was taken in accordance with the decision of the PTI founder and party leadership.

According to the chief minister’s spokesperson, Khurram Zeeshan is the only disgruntled candidate who has not yet announced his withdrawal.

Waqas Orakzai, while announcing his withdrawal after meeting the chief minister, said that withdrawing the papers did not mean that he had abandoned his ideology.

He said that Barrister Gohar and Salman Akram Raja assured him that the names of the candidates for the Senate elections had been finalised by the PTI founder.

Chief Minister Gandapur praised the decision of the disgruntled leaders and said, “Alhamdulillah, Waqas Orakzai respected the decision of the founder, and I am proud that he preferred the ideology of the party over personal interest. This spirit will form the foundation of a new Pakistan free from corruption.”