Pakistan General Elections: 1.6 million votes discarded, says report
What's the story
A total of 1.67mn votes cast across Pakistan in the 2018 general election were rejected, which was 11.7% more than that of the 1.5mn ballots discarded in the 2013 polls, a report said. A ballot is rejected from the count if it does not clearly show which candidate has been marked by the voter or more than one candidate have been marked. Here's more.
Details
Total voter turnout was only 51% in the general elections
As per the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), there were over 100 million registered voters but only about 51% of them exercised their franchises. The Free and Fair Elections Network (FAFEN) report released on Friday was based on its monitoring of the entire polling process in the four provinces of Pakistan as well as the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
Rejected votes
40% increase in number of rejected votes in Balochistan
There was a 40% increase in the number of rejected votes in Balochistan, 30.6% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 7% in Sindh, and 6.6% in Punjab. The votes rejected from the count surpassed the margin of victory in 49 (18.1%) of the 270 contested seats of the National Assembly. These include 26 seats in Punjab, 11 in Sindh, and six each in KP and Balochistan.
Assembly constituencies
Ballots have been excluded from 58 assembly constituencies in Punjab
Similarly, the number of ballots excluded from the count exceeded the margin of victory in 120 (21%) of the 570 provincial assembly constituencies where elections were held. These include 58 constituencies in Punjab, 24 in KP, 22 in Sindh, and 16 in Balochistan. The victory margin in 79 national and 169 provincial assembly seats is less than 5% of the total votes polled.
Information
Here's what Pakistan law says about recounting of ballots
According to Pakistan's election law, a candidate can demand recounting of ballots if the margin of victory is less than 5% of the total votes polled in the constituency, or 10,000, whichever is lesser.