ISLAMABAD, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday officially notified successful candidates in the July 25 elections, which is a major step towards the government formation.
President of Pakistan will now summon the first session of the National Assembly or Lower House of the parliament for the oath taking ceremony of the members-elect.
The members will elect speaker and deputy speaker after taking oath and later the house will elect the country's new prime minister.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI, which emerged the largest party in the elections, has formally nominated its chief Imran Khan for the prime minister.
Shehbaz Sharif, the president of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, will contest against Imran Khan. Shehbaz is the joint candidate of the opposition parties.
The ECP posted results of the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies on its website.
Notification of Imran Khan on two seats out of five seats he had won has been withheld due to cases pending with the ECP over violation of code of conduct.
Pakistani laws allow an individual to contest election on more than one seat but the member-elect can keep only one seat in the lower house, so Khan will have to leave four seats.
Some defeated candidates have moved the courts for recounting of the votes.
Notification regarding successful candidates nominated for reserved seats in the National Assembly will be issued on Saturday. According to the constitution, there are 342 seats in the National Assembly out of which 272 are directly elected, while 60 are reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities.
Reserved seats are distributed among the parties on the basis of the number of elected members in elections on general seats.
