City polls. Photo: AFP
ISLAMABAD:
Voter turnout remained markedly muted in recent by-elections, with an overall voter turnout of just 28.58 percent in six national assemblies and seven provincial constituencies, according to official documents released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday.
The ECP data shows a stark contrast in electoral engagement between constituencies, with only a handful recording relatively robust turnouts.
NA-18 Haripur emerged as the highest performing statewide constituency, registering a voter turnout of 50.82 percent, almost double the national total.
In comparison, other seats in the National Assembly reported significantly weaker participation.
NA-185 had a voter turnout of 32.61 percent, NA-96 Faisalabad 26.46 percent, NA-143 Sahiwal 21.43 percent and NA-129 Lahore saw only 18.67 percent of registered voters cast their votes.
The lowest voter turnout among the National Assembly seats was observed in NA-104 Faisalabad, where voter turnout fell to 13.23 percent, the documents said.
The provincial by-elections reflected a similar downward trend, albeit with marginally better engagement in some pockets. PP-269 Muzaffargarh matched Haripur with a voter turnout of 50.82 percent, making it the most active among provincial constituencies.
It was followed by PP-98 Faisalabad with 36.82 percent, PP-73 Sargodha with 34.45 percent and PP-87 Mianwali with 27 percent.
Meanwhile, PP-116 Faisalabad recorded 22.94 percent, PP-203 Sahiwal 22.4 percent and the remaining seats hovered below the already dismal national average.
Winning all the seats, the ruling PML-N secured close to 64 percent of the total votes in the by-elections to six National Assembly constituencies held on Sunday.
Five constituencies were located in Punjab and one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These seats, except one, were vacated due to the disqualification of the opposition PTI MNAs.
The PML-N got 564,400 votes out of a total of 883,108 or 63.91% of the votes cast for the six seats in the National Assembly. In a surprise result, PML-N against all expectations also wrested the NA-18 (Haripur, KP) seat from PTI. Political analysts had hoped that at least this seat would be retained by PTI due to certain factors including KP being ruled by PTI so there were minimal chances of cheating in the constituency.
The former Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub’s wife, contested against the little-known Babar Nawaz Khan of the PML-N.
Likewise, PML-N took from PTI the seat of NA-129 (Lahore-XIII) vacated after the death of MNA Miaz Azhar, former Punjab Governor and father of PTI leader Hammad Azhar. Azhar’s nephew Arsalan faced PML-N’s Hafiz Nauman here. Both represented the Arain clan, which makes up the majority of voters in the constituency.
The PML-N won six out of seven Punjab Assembly seats in the province by securing 82.41 per cent. of the polled votes.
