Islamabad, April 1, 2019: The by-election in PP-218 Multan VIII witnessed a 13 percent decline in the voter turnout since General Elections (GE) 2018...
Islamabad, February 27, 2019: A decline in male voter turnout and violations of the Election Commission’s Code of Conduct for campaigning marked the PK-30...
Islamabad, January 28, 2019: A declining voter’s turnout and violations of Election Commission’s Code of Conduct for campaigning marked the PS-94 Korangi Karachi-III by-election...
ISLAMABAD, January 1, 2019: The by-election in PB-26 Quetta-III recorded a declining voters’ turnout and low incidence of electoral irregularities, replicating the trend witnessed...
ISLAMABAD, December 14, 2018: The declining voter turnout and low incidence of electoral irregularities mark the by-election in PP-168 Lahore-XXV which witnessed a shrinking...
ISLAMABAD, November 30, 2018: Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) released its key observation findings of the General Election 2018 in a press conference...
ISLAMABAD, October 22, 2018: A perplexing drop in voters’ turnout characterizes an otherwise well-managed by-elections held in one national and two provincial assembly constituencies on October 21, 2018, warranting an urgent attention of political parties to address the dwindling public interest in the electoral process, which remained high only three months ago during the General Elections (GE) 2018.
Procedural irregularities such as restrictions on polling agents were observed to have increased during these by-elections, more on Karachi seats (NA-247 Karachi South-II and PS-111 Karachi South-V) than on Peshawar seat (PK-71 Peshawar VI), wherein 15 percent of observed polling stations, polling agents were seated at a place where they could not observe the polling process. In addition, the by-elections also recorded an increase in the number of ballots excluded from the count at the polling stations. Read more
ISLAMABAD, October 16, 2018: Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) observed significant improvement in the quality of the election result management process during low-turnout October 14 by-elections, which remained peaceful throughout the day, says a press statement released on Tuesday.
While a considerable decline in the turnout in these constituencies as compared to July 25, 2018 is disconcerting, the transparency and efficiency of vote counting at the polling stations and tabulation of the provisional results by the Returning Officers (Form-47-Provisional Consolidated Statement of the Result of the Count) was encouraging, improving the overall credibility of the electoral process. With the exception of PB-40 (Khuzdar-III), provisional results for the remaining constituencies were finalized by 2:00 am deadlines as stipulated by Section 13 (3) of the Elections Act, 2017. Read more
Islamabad, August 12, 2018: Although national voter turnout decreased marginally from 53.62% in 2013 to 51.99% in General Election 2018 (GE-2018), as many as 8.45 million more voters turned out to vote as compared to General Election 2013 (GE2013), indicating an abiding commitment and interest of citizens to exercise their right to choose their government representatives.
The significant increase in the number of voters is primarily due to an unprecedented increase in voter registration between the two general elections – from 86.18 million in 2013 to 105.96 million in 2018. The increase in the number of registered voters in the five years between the 2013 and 2018 elections (19.77 million) was more than the increase in the 10 years between the 2002 and 2013 elections (14.27 million). Similarly, between polls in 2002 and 2008, only 8.88 million were added to the electoral rolls, and between polls in 2008 and 2013, the voter population increased by a mere 5.39 million. Read More >>
Islamabad, August 3, 2018: The number of ballot papers excluded from the count in General Elections 2018 surpassed the number of ballots rejected in General Elections 2013. Nearly 1.67 million ballots were excluded from the count in GE-2018. This number may slightly vary after the final consolidated result is released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as the ballots excluded from the count at the polling station level by Presiding Officers are to be reviewed by the Returning Officers during the consolidation proceedings, who can either reject them or count them in favor of a candidate if excluded wrongly.
The increase in the number of ballots excluded from the count was a ubiquitous phenomenon observed in all provinces and Islamabad Capital Territory with nearly 11.7% overall increase. In Islamabad Capital Territory, the number of ballots excluded from the count is more than double the rejected ballots in the region in GE-2013. Around 40% increase in the number of ballots excluded from the count was observed in Balochistan, 30.6 % increase in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), 7% increase in Sindh and 6.6% increase in Punjab. Read More >>
