Over 7,300 candidates are in the fray for next month's elections to Pakistan's national and four provincial assemblies as the main political parties stepped up their campaign to woo voters across the country.

The Election Commission said 2,252 candidates remained in the field for the 272 seats in the National Assembly and 5,083 candidates would contest for 577 provincial assembly seats.

The poll panel published the final list of candidates following the withdrawal of nominations on December 15.

"In all, the total contesting candidates in the national and provincial assembly constituencies are 7,335," it said in a statement.

Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Dilshad said the returning officers had dispatched the lists of contesting candidates to Provincial Election Commissioners. The process of printing ballot papers had begun at government presses in Islamabad, Lahore [Images] and Karachi, he said.

As expected, the politically crucial Punjab province had the highest number of 1, 003 candidates for 148 National Assembly seats and 2,311 candidates for 297 provincial assembly seats.

Punjab is expected to witness a stiff contest between former premier Nawaz Sharif's PML-N and the PML-Q that backs President Pervez Musharraf [Images].

Sindh province, a stronghold for former premier Benazir Bhutto's [Images] Pakistan People's Party, registered 627 candidates for its 61 National Assembly seats and 1,468 candidates for 130 provincial assembly seats.

There were 262 candidates for the 35 National Assembly seats and 763 candidates for 99 provincial assembly constituencies in the Northwest Frontier Province. Balochistan had 143 candidates for its 14 National Assembly constituencies and 541 candidates for 51 provincial assembly seats.

There are 34 candidates contesting the two National Assembly constituencies in the Islamabad Capital Territory and 183 candidates for the 12 parliamentary seats in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Barring a few smaller parties like Imran Khan's [Images] Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Jamaat-e-Islami, which are members of the All Parties Democratic Movement, most parties are participating in the January 8 polls.

Though he has been barred from contesting the polls, former premier Nawaz Sharif is currently campaigning for the party in Punjab while his political rival, PPP chief Benazir Bhutto is in Sindh to drum up support for her party.