Count in General Elections 2018 saw more votes excluded than the number of ballots rejected in General Elections 2013.

Islamabad, August 3, 2018: The number of ballot papers excluded from the count in General Elections 2018 surpassed the number of ballots rejected in General Elections 2013. Nearly 1.67 million ballots were excluded from the count in GE-2018.

Count in General Election 2018: Who has Power to Review Binned Ballots?

This number may slightly vary after the final consolidated result is released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as the ballots excluded from the count at the polling station level by Presiding Officers are to be reviewed by the Returning Officers during the consolidation proceedings, who can either reject them or count them in favor of a candidate if excluded wrongly.

The increase in the number of ballots excluded from the count was a ubiquitous phenomenon observed in all provinces and Islamabad Capital Territory with nearly 11.7% overall increase. In Islamabad Capital Territory, the number of ballots excluded from the count is more than double the rejected ballots in the region in GE-2013.

Around 40% increase in the number of ballots excluded from the count was observed in Balochistan, 30.6 % increase in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), 7% increase in Sindh and 6.6% increase in Punjab.

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Erratum: An earlier version of this report had an error in the Annexure 1 Part b Section 2. The annexure has now been updated. However, the error had no implication on the overall analysis presented in the report.