'1.6 million votes rejected in elections 2018'

ISLAMABAD: The latest report unveiled by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) says the number of votes rejected in the 2018 elections stands at 1.67 million.

According to Fafen, the rejection of votes is around 11 per cent higher than 2013 elections when 1.5 million votes were rejected.

The report points out that the increase in the number of rejected votes is observed in all four provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

The surprising mention in the report says that ballots excluded from the count surpassed the margin of victory in 49 of the 270 National Assembly constituencies. Twenty six of the constituencies are in Punjab, 11 in Sindh, six each in KP and Balochistan.

Similarly, the number of ballots excluded from the count exceeded the margin of victory in 120 of the 570 provincial assembly constituencies. Of them, 120 provincial assembly constituencies, 58 are in Punjab, 24 in KP, 22 in Sindh and 16 in Balochistan.

In a breakdown of figures, there was a 40% increase in the number of rejected votes in Balochistan, 30.6pc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, 7% in Sindh and 6.6% in Punjab.

Of the 49 National Assembly constituencies where the number of excluded ballots exceeded the margin of victory, 21 were won by PTI, 11 by PML-N, six by PPP, three by the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), two by the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and one each by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), Awami National Party (ANP), Jamhoori Watan Party and PML-Q. Independents won two of the constituencies.