Pakistan’s 12th general elections recorded a low turnout with only 47.9pc of total eligible voters exercising their right to choose their representatives.<\/p>\n
While political parties fight over who gets to form the government at the centre and each of the provinces, there are cries from various quarters of their mandate having been stolen. But what does that mean? How many Pakistanis actually exercised their right to adult franchise on Feb 8? And where the voter turnout was less than ideal, does the winning candidate actually represent the will of the people?<\/p>\n
In the words<\/a> of political analyst Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, voter turnout is as vital a sign of the political health of a democracy as is blood pressure in a human body.<\/p>\n Broadly speaking, a total of 60.8 million voters exercised their right to vote in Pakistan\u2019s 12th general elections, according to an analysis conducted by Dawn.com<\/em> through the published Form 47s of the 264 constituencies, whose results have been announced, on the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s (ECP) website. This number was almost 6 million more compared to when 54.8 million Pakistanis cast their votes in 2018.<\/p>\n Besides voter turnout, the data contained in the Form 47s also shed light on at least two other key patterns \u2014 the number of rejected votes and the disparity between female and male voters in each constitutency \u2014 which we analysed and whose findings are presented below.<\/p>\n Despite months of political instability, violence and allegations of pre-decided winners, millions of Pakistanis did come out to cast their vote on Feb 8. However, their numbers were only 47.9 per cent of the total eligible voters \u2014 which means that over half of the eligible voters in the country chose not to exercise their right to franchise at all.<\/p>\n In a recent article for this publication<\/a>, former senator Javed Jabbar wrote that \u201cthe minimal turnout to validate an election should be at least 75pc, which is equivalent to the margin required to make a constitutional amendment in most democracies.\u201d<\/p>\n In Pakistan, the democratic process mandates the affirmation of two-thirds majority of all elected representatives in the assembly to bring about an amendment in the Constitution. However, the voter turnout, determining the individuals who will represent the public in the legislative process, has consistently remained below 60pc, and it has never reached the threshold of 75pc since Independence.<\/p>\n Keeping up with tradition of low turnout, in the 2024 elections all provinces except Punjab \u2014 with 51pc \u2014 reported a voter turnout of less then 50pc. The turnout in Balochistan was the lowest at 41pc; close in the race were Sindh with 43.6pc and KP with 44pc.<\/p>\n Across the 264 constituencies, NA-214 Tharparkar I witnessed the highest voter turnout at 70.9pc, whereas the lowest was recorded in South Waziristan at a mere 16pc. While not reaching the absolute lowest, the unexpectedly low turnout in NA-236 Karachi East II (24.93pc) and NA-241 Karachi South (23pc) caught everyone off guard.<\/p>\n One of the reasons behind the low turnout was the fear of violence at polling stations. Talha Saeed, a voter in constituency NA-236 said that he was unable to cast his vote as the polling station was shut down at 1pm due to a firing incident.<\/p>\n The incident took place despite the fact the majority of polling stations in Karachi had been declared \u2018sensitive\u2019<\/a> by the ECP. Large police and Rangers contingents were also deployed to ensure a smooth electoral process.<\/p>\n It also wasn\u2019t that any expenditure was spared to facilitate the electoral process, with the ECP having been allocated a budget of Rs42 billion<\/a> \u2014 which when calculated against the number of registered voters \u2014 means that Rs329.51 were devoted to facilitate each voter.<\/p>\n Despite the substantial investment of taxpayer funds and a year-long preparation period, the ECP fell short in ensuring accessibility for all voters. The author personally observed<\/a> a deficiency at their polling station in NA-238, where facilities to assist the elderly and disabled citizens in casting their votes were notably absent.<\/p>\n The ECP had set up a helpline, 8300, allowing voters to obtain information about their provincial and national constituencies, polling stations, and serial numbers by entering their national identity number. Unfortunately, on election day, cellular services were suspended citing security concerns. Those who were unable to send messages the day before and were unaware of their polling details were simply at a loss and many couldn\u2019t cast their vote for this very reason.<\/p>\n According to the ECP\u2019s own data, a significant proportion of the no-shows were eligible female voters.<\/p>\n Compared to the total 46.89pc female voter turnout in 2018<\/a>, the share of female voters share decreased to 41.3pc this year. At the same time, men\u2019s turnout increased from 56.01pc to 58.7pc. This also furthered the gap between the genders to 17.4 percentage points, translating into 10.22 million fewer women votes polled than men\u2019s.<\/p>\n In the 98 by-elections held since the 2018 general elections,<\/a> this pattern of lower female voter turnout has persisted where the share of polled women votes has been around 40pc of the total polled votes, translating to around 2m fewer women votes polled.<\/p>\n One of the measures taken by the state to encourage women voter turnout was through Section 9 of the Elections Act, 2017,<\/a> which states that if the turnout of women voters is less than 10pc of the total votes polled in a constituency, the ECP may presume that women voters have been restrained from casting their votes and may declare polling at one or more polling stations or election in the whole constituency void.<\/p>\nThey did show up to vote<\/h2>\n
How many women showed up?<\/h2>\n