The much-awaited nationwide polls are going to be held on February 8 with half of Pakistani citizens eligible to vote to decide the future of the world’s fifth-largest democracy. The NA-23 Mardan-III constituency was previously “Charsadda-I” before new delimitations notified in November last year in the light of the 2023 digital census data. Eleven candidates are contesting from this constituency including the election hopefuls from major parties including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed independent contestant, the Jamiat Ulema-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), the Awami National Party (ANP), the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JIP), and others. The candidates include PML-N’s Jalal Khan Khattak, PTI-backed Ali Muhammad Khan, PPP’s Shoaib Alam Khan, ANP’s Ahmad Khan Bahadur, JUI-F’s Kaleem Ullah Khan, JIP’s Aqib Ismail, as well as other parties and independent candidates. In the 2018 general polls, PTI’s Malik Anwar Taj had won the seat, however, he later stepped down from the seat following mass resignations from the party in April.