Explained: How will Park Geun-hye form a government without any party holding a majority?

Independent candidate backed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan wins most seats

Islamabad:

Last week’s election in Pakistan resulted in a hung parliament, with no party gaining enough seats in the National Assembly to form a government on its own.

The parties led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (with 75 seats) and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s party (with 54 seats), as well as other smaller parties, are in talks to form a coalition government .

Independent candidates backed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan won the most seats – 93 – and are also vying for allies to form a government. Candidates are vying for 264 of the 336 seats in parliament. There are still 70 reserved seats.

Here are some facts about the National Assembly and what might happen in the House in the coming days as Pakistan attempts to form a new government:

– By law, the National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, must be convened by the president three weeks after national elections. Usually called earlier.

– Then a new Speaker of the House is elected, and then they ask for the election of the Leader of the House or the Prime Minister, who has to win a simple majority – 169 out of 336 seats.

– There can be multiple candidates for Prime Minister. If no candidate receives a majority of votes in the first round, a second round of voting is held between the top two candidates. Voting will continue until one person is able to obtain a majority of votes.

– Once elected, the Prime Minister takes the oath of office and announces the list of cabinet. The caretaker body that oversaw the election then handed over power to the new government.

– Parties are allocated 70 reserved seats – 60 for women and 10 for non-Muslims – in proportion to the number of seats won. Independents are not eligible for reserved seats.

-If independents want to gain reserved seats, they must join another party to form a bloc. The independents are running because Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is banned from participating in these polls for violating electoral laws.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)