The proportion of excluded ballots in the 13 constituencies where by-elections were held on November 23, 2025, declined from 2.4 percent of total polled votes in General Election 2024 to 1.6 percent.

Except for PP-203 Sahiwal-VI, all constituencies recorded a slight decrease in the number of excluded ballots in percentage terms, along with a decline in the voter turnout.  In both absolute and percentage terms, the highest number of votes excluded from the count was in NA-18 Haripur, where 7,826 or 2.5 percent of the polled votes were not counted in favour of any candidate.

Why are some votes excluded from the count?

Under section 90(5) of the Elections Act, 2017, the presiding officers are required to exclude from the counting any ballot papers which

• Are inadvertently spoilt by the voters in a way that it cannot be used as a valid ballot paper;
• Have no official mark and signature of the Presiding Officer;
• Have any writing or any mark other than the official mark, the signature of the Presiding Officer and the prescribed mark;
• Have attached with them a piece of paper or any other object of any kind;
• Have no prescribed mark to indicate the contesting candidate for whom the voter has voted; or
• Have a mark from which it is not clear for whom the voter has voted.

Can excluded votes be included in the count later on?

Yes. Under Section 95(2) of the Elections Act, 2017, the Returning Officers are required, before consolidating the results, to examine the ballot papers excluded from the count by the Presiding Officers and, if it is found that any such ballot paper should not have been so excluded, such a ballot paper is counted as cast in favour of the contesting candidate for whom the vote has been cast.

How did each constituency fare w.r.t. excluded ballots?

• NA-18 Haripur: Excluded ballots decreased from 11,722 (3.2 percent of the polled votes) to 7,826 (2.5 percent).
• NA-96 Faisalabad-II: Excluded ballots decreased from 6,098 (2.2 percent) to 2,735 (1.8 percent).
• NA-104 Faisalabad-X: Excluded ballots decreased from 4,303 (1.6 percent) to 953 (1.3 percent).
• NA-129 Lahore-XIII: Excluded ballots decreased from 3,683 (1.7 percent) to 756 (0.7 percent).
• NA-143 Sahiwal-III: Excluded ballots decreased from 5,970 (1.8 percent) to 1,899 (1.5 percent).
• NA-185 Dera Ghazi Khan-II: Excluded ballots fell from 7,065 (3.8 percent) to 2,160 (1.6 percent).
• PP-73 Sargodha-III: Excluded ballots decreased from 4,034 (3.0 percent) to 648 (0.7 percent).
• PP-87 Mianwali-III: Excluded ballots decreased from 4,391 (2.8 percent) to 950 (1.2 percent).
• PP-98 Faisalabad-I: Excluded ballots declined from 4,592 (2.9 percent) to 1,770 (1.7 percent).
• PP-115 Faisalabad-XVIII: Excluded ballots decreased from 1,541 (1.4 percent) to 473 (0.9 percent).
• PP-116 Faisalabad-XIX: Excluded ballots dropped from 1,978 (1.5 percent) to 773 (1.2 percent).
• PP-203 Sahiwal-VI: Excluded ballots decreased from 2,602 (2.0 percent) to 1,130 (2.0 percent).
• PP-269 Muzaffargarh-II: Excluded ballots reduced from 4,893 (3.6 percent) to 2,252 (1.9 percent).