During the General Elections 2024, the Member of the National Assembly (MNA) from NA-5 Upper Dir was elected with 91,165 votes, which made up 42 percent of the 214,908 ballots cast, with only 15 percent of the 590,433 registered voters in the constituency.

According to the Final Consolidated Result (Form-49) of the constituency, the voter turnout stood at 36 percent. The runner-up candidate secured 23 percent of the polled votes, the third-placed candidate received 18 percent, while the remaining eight candidates collectively secured 13 percent votes.

Despite the victory, the winner did not have the support of the majority of voters who exercised their right to vote on February 8, 2024, as 114,724 or 58 percent of them voted for other candidates, indicating they did not want the winner to represent them. As many as 9,019 ballots or four percent were declared invalid, meaning they did not go to any candidate.

This story is part of FAFEN’s constituency-wise analysis on the unrepresentativeness of Pakistan’s electoral outcomes. The series highlights how the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system can skew representation in multi-candidate electoral contests of Pakistan, where three or more contenders are common. In such contests, a majority of voters may feel unrepresented and raise questions about the legitimacy, which may potentially contribute to political instability.

Stay tuned to the FAFEN website to read the story of your constituency.

Explore more stories from the series here.

*An earlier version of this story combined invalid votes with the votes polled against winner. The numbers have now been corrected to list invalid votes separately.