Voter turnout drops by 11% in NA-171 by-election: FAFEN report

ISLAMABAD: The low-turnout by-election in NA-171 Rahimyar Khan-III remained peaceful and well-organized amidst isolated instances of procedural irregularities mainly concerning polling day canvassing and provision of results forms to the polling agents and observers, ARY News reported quoting FAFEN.

If compared with general election 2024, the voter turnout dropped by 11 percentage points during by-election despite a two percent increase in the registered voters from the General Elections 2024. The number of invalid votes also declined from three percent of the polled votes in GE-2024 to two percent in the by-election, the report said.

The vote share of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian’s (PPPP) increased from 20 percent in GE-2024 to 64 percent in by-election, while the share of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) declined from 43 percent to 32 percent polled votes. The provisional consolidated statement of results of the count (Form-47) was ready before 12 a.m. on the night of the polling day.

The persisting polling day canvassing and isolated instances of procedural omissions and irregularities particularly concerning the inadequate copies of result forms and lack of polling staff’s training were observed during the polling process. Around 68 percent of the observed polling stations had party/candidate camps in their surroundings displaying banners and distributing voter chits and food. Party-supported vehicles provided voter transport at 67 percent observed polling stations.

The ballot counting process was also observed to be largely transparent and compliant with the legal and regulatory procedures. The Presiding Officers provided the copies of the Result of the Count (Form-45) to all polling agents present during the counting process. However, the copies of Ballot Paper Account (Form-46) was not provided to the polling agents at 43 percent of the observed polling stations. The PrOs did not provide the copies of Form-45 to the election observers at 14 percent observed polling stations and Form-46 at 43 percent polling stations.

Around 22 percent polling officers and 23 percent Assistant Presiding Officers (APOs) at observed polling stations reported they did not receive training before being assigned to the election duty and around 23 percent security officials did not receive the training before the deployed for the election-duty.

According to the List of Contesting Candidates (Form-33), a total of seven candidates including six men and a woman vied for the constituency. Of these seven, three represented PTI, PPPP and Tehreek-e-Laabbaik Pakistan (TLP), while the remaining four contested independently. Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) did not field a candidate.

FAFEN report: NA-171-Rahim-Yar-Khan-III_by_election_report_FAFEN

The seat had become vacant after the death of PTI’s Member National Assembly (MNA) Mumtaz Mustafa who won the seat during GE-2024 with a margin of victory (MoV) of 47,804 votes in a three-way race among PMLN, PPPP and PTI-backed independent candidates. In the absence of a PMLN candidate, the by-election proved to be a two-way race between PPPP and PTI with PPPP candidate claiming the seat with a victory margin of 58,178 votes.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had setup 301 polling stations–88 male, 88 female and 125 combined – comprising 901 polling booths – 510 male and 391 female – to cater to more than 526,973 registered voters-288,113 male and 238,860 female voters in the constituency. ECP declared eight polling stations as highly sensitive and 54 as sensitive polling stations.