Contestants fear low turnout

Previous four general elections witnessed low turnout of voters

KARACHI:

Low turnout of voters has always been a problem in the history of general elections in Pakistan.
In the 2002 general elections, 25,906,228 votes were polled for political parties and independent candi-
dates. The PPP received the highest number of votes of 7,361,423 with 28 per cent of the total votes,

However, the number of seats they bagged was 80. The alliance of religious parties, Muttahida Majlise- Amal (MMA) got 12 per cent of the votes and secured 59 seats. Muslim League-N won 18 seats in the National Assembly by getting 3,292,659 votes from across the country.

The MQM won 17 seats in the National Assembly in 2002 general elections by securing 920,381 votes.

In the 2008 general elections, 43 political parties and independent candidates were in the run and the overall turnout of voters was less than 30 per cent. The PPP got 41 per cent of the total votes cast in Sindh for the provincial assembly seats, while it got 30 percent of the votes on the national assembly seats across the country.

PML-N got more than 6,800,000 votes in 2008 and19 per cent votes were cast in their favour on national assembly seats. MQM got seven per cent of the total votes cast, Muslim League (Q) 23 per cent, MMA two per cent and Awami National Party two per cent of total votes cast.

In the 2013 general elections, more than 45,388,404 votes were cast for the national assembly seats across the country, of which PML-N got 14,874,104 votes.

Read: Youth voter turnout challenges in spotlight

In 2013, PML-N got 592,954 votes on provincial seats from Sindh, while PPP got 3,209,686 votes on Sindh assembly seats. M u t t a h i d a Q a u m i Movement (MQM) was able to secure 2,456,153 votes on national seats and 2,510,853 votes on Sindh assembly seats.

Independent candidates got 5,880,000 votes for national assembly seats and 6,217,000 votes for Punjab assembly seats. PTI was able to form the provincial government for the first time and won national and provincial seats from across the country. In the 2013 general elections, PTI got 7,679,954
votes in national seats while 4,900,000 votes were cast in Punjab and 6 million votes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were casted in favour of the PTI.

In the 2018 election, Tehreek-e-Insaaf emerged as the largest party and it won 118 seats in the National
Assembly in 2018 and got 32 per cent of the total votes from across the country. In the 2018 general elections, the PPP got 13 per cent of the votes while the PML-N got 24 per cent of the total votes polled.

The independent candidates are in large number in the upcoming February 8 general elections. Independent candidates and turnout of voters in this election will be the main factor in the success of any candidate or political party as a whole. There are many national and provincial assembly constituencies in Karachi where if the turnout of voters is 30 per cent, political parties will face difficulties.