Fafen : Rise in voters, decrease in turnout seen in Feb 8 elections
In Pakistan, approximately 60.6 million people cast ballots in the nation’s 12th general election on February 8. This is a rise over the minimum of 54.8 million voters who cast ballots in the 2018 elections, indicating a minimum of 5.8 million more voters than in the previous year, according to the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) in its post-election analysis report.
In contrast to the overall number of voters registered, the election monitor claims that there was a decrease in voter turnout in the most recent general polls. The voter participation in the polls on February 8 was 47.6%, compared to 52.1% in 2018.
However, the growth in registered voters from 106 million in 2018 to 128.6 million in 2024 is mostly responsible for the decline in turnout. Fafen’s analysis noted a noteworthy increase of 22.6 million registered voters between the elections of 2018 and 2024.
The research said that other factors that could have negatively impacted participation were the severe winter that certain regions of the nation experienced, worries about violence and terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and uncertainty about how the elections would be conducted.
The study is based on an examination of Form 47, the provisional consolidated statement of results of the count, which was obtained from the Election Commission of Pakistan’s official website for each of the 264 National Assembly seats (ECP).
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa saw a fall in turnout from 44% in 2018 to 39.5% in 2024; ICT had a decline from 58.3% to 54.2%; Punjab saw a decline from 56.8% to 51.6%; Sindh saw a decline from 47.2% to 43.7%; and Balochistan saw a decline from 45.3% to 42.9%. Although turnout fell by 4.5% overall.
According to the gender-disaggregated figures of polled votes, 51.6% of males and 42.6% of females cast ballots.
Based on the statistics available, there were 24.05 million female voters in 254 NA seats, but there were 34.02 million male voters in the same constituencies.