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Pakistan, the world's sixth populous country, is about to go to the polls in a general election on July 25th, 2018. The election will determine who will lead the country for the next five years. The two main parties contesting are the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by former cricketer Imran Khan. Pakistan has been governed by military dictators for almost half of its history, but this will be the second consecutive general election, which is set to herald the dawn of years of continuous democracy.
There are many issues in Pakistan that the voters and the candidates should consider for this election, such as the escalating violence and extremism, the involvement of the military in politics, the economic state of the country and the fragile relations with neighboring countries especially India. There are furthermore some concerns related to the fairness of the upcoming elections because of allegations of pre-poll rigging, harassment of opposition members and mishandling of ballots. Regardless of all the issues, all eyes will be on the election day when the people in Pakistan will come to the polls and exercise their democratic right to choose the next leader of their country.