Some seats see conflicting trends in turnout, rejected votes

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) Form-47 prepared on the basis of general elections-2024 contains some interesting facts and varied figures in diverse constituencies. There are conflicting trends and patterns of turnout of voters, and the votes in constituencies not counted, because of being rejected due to different reasons.

A random look at the form shows 60pc plus turnout in some constituencies and below 30 percent in some others. For instance, a big number of 24,547 votes were rejected in NA-59, Talagan-cum-Chakwal constituency. Interestingly, the turnout, 58.49, was indeed quite encouraging. PMLN’s Sardar Ghulam Abbas returned from this constituency by pocketing 141,680 votes and the runner-up, Romaan Ahmad, independent, was behind with healthy 129,716 votes. In contrast, in another constituency, NA-58, Chakwal, the turnout was 62.05 percent while the number of votes rejected was dramatically far lesser i.e. 2,243 votes. Again, turnout in NA-91, Bhakkar-I, was record at 62.93pc and 13,513 votes were rejected. Independent Sanaullah Mastikhel returned from here while his closest opponent was Abdul Majeed Khan of PMLN, who secured 85,429 votes. A healthy turnout of 60.58 percent was witnessed in NA-110, Jhang-III, where 11,105 votes were rejected. In the same district, Jhang-I, NA-108, though the turnout was quite good, recorded at 59.32 percent, the number of rejected votes should be a point of concern for the political parties and contesting candidates, which is 10,799 votes. Quite surprisingly, the voter turnout in most constituencies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was around 40 percent. But it was recorded abysmally low just at 24.62 percent in NA-36, Hangu-cum-Orakzai. Yousaf Khan, an independent got maximum 73,076 votes while his closest rival Obaidullah received 34,324 votes. In this constituency, a total 3,740 votes were rejected. The turnout in NA-13, Battagram, was also on the lower side and it was recorded at 28.47 percent while 3,421 votes were rejected too. In the federal capital, NA-48, from where independent Raja Khurram Shahzad Nawaz won, bagging 69,699 votes, witnessed the highest turnout of 61.10 percent (1,211 votes were rejected) as compared to two other constituencies, namely NA-46, 43 percent, whereas minimum 803 votes were rejected and in NA-47, turnout was recorded at 58.38 percent and 1,049 votes were rejected. In NA-257, Hub-cum-Lasbela-cum-Awaran, the turnout was a healthy 51.1 percent but the number of votes rejected was 10,459. Likewise, in NA-264, Quetta-III, the turnout was quite low, recorded at 28.68 percent but only 704 votes were trashed.