During the General Elections 2024, the Member of the National Assembly (MNA) from NA-7 Lower Dir-II was elected with 84,670 votes, which made up 48 percent of the 176,936 ballots cast, or only 20 percent of the 413,777 registered voters in the constituency.

According to the Final Consolidated Result (Form-49) for the constituency, the voter turnout was 43 percent. The runner-up candidate secured 18 percent of the total ballots cast; the third-placed candidate received 12 percent, while the remaining 13 candidates collectively secured 21 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 88,018 or 52 percent of them voted for other candidates, indicating they did not want the winner to represent them. As many as 4,248 ballots or two 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.