2023_Khyber_Pakhtunkhwa_provincial_election

2024 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial election

2024 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial election

Pakistani election of members to a Provincial Assembly

Provincial elections were held in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on 8 February 2024 to elect members of the 12th Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On 5 August 2023, the results of the 2023 digital census were approved by the Council of Common Interests headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Therefore, elections have been delayed for several months, as new delimitations will be published on 14 December 2023, as announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).[2][3] On 2 November 2023, the ECP announced, in agreement with the President of Pakistan, Arif Alvi, that the elections would be held on 8 February 2024.[4] This election was held concurrently with nationwide general elections and other provincial elections.

Quick Facts 115 out of 145 seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly 73 seats needed for a majority, Registered ...

Background

In the 2018 election, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won a landslide victory in the province by securing a two-thirds majority in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. The PTI became the only party in the province's history to return to government with more seats after completing a 5-year term.[5][6]

Before the 2018 elections, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) (JUI-F) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) restored their electoral alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, to counter the PTI's support but failed to make gains and in fact lost even more seats.[7][8]

The Pashtun nationalist and leftist Awami National Party (ANP) also failed to counter the PTI, but slightly increased their share of seats.

The conservative Pakistan Muslim league (N) (PML-N) once the most popular party in the Hazara Division, also faced defeat and was nearly wiped out from the region.

Due to circumstances arising after the successful motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Imran Khan, a motion of no confidence was also filed to remove Chief Minister Mahmood Khan from office. The motion was rejected on 11 April 2022, as 88 votes were cast against the motion to just 2 in favor.[9]

On 26 June 2022, the PTI flipped the PK-7 Swat-VI constituency in a by-election, winning by a margin of 4,341 votes and defeated the ANP, which enjoyed the support of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), particularly the JUI(F) and PML(N).[10]

On 17 January 2023, Chief Minister Khan sent a letter to Governor Haji Ghulam Ali, advising him to dissolve the Provincial Assembly. Ali accepted the advice the next day. Elections must be conducted within 90 days of the dissolution, meaning by or before 18 April 2023.[11][12]

After two days of talks, on 20 January 2023, the government and opposition agreed on appointing Muhammad Azam Khan, a former bureaucrat, as the caretaker Chief Minister.[13]

After a month of delay from Governor Ali and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), President Arif Alvi decided to unilaterally appoint 9 April 2023 as the date for the provincial election.[14]

On 1 March 2023, in a 3-2 split verdict, the Supreme Court ruled that since Governor Ali had dissolved the Assembly, he was "in breach of his constitutional duty" by not appointing an election date and should immediately do so, after consultation with the ECP. As a consequence, the date appointed by President Alvi was set aside.[15]

On 15 March 2023, Governor Ali suggested the date for the provincial election to be 28 May 2023. However, on 24 March, in a letter to the ECP, he sought a postponement of the elections to 8 October. Consequently, on 29 March, the ECP announced that they would hold the provincial elections on 8 October.[16][17][18]

On 25 March 2023, Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, the Speaker of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, filed a constitutional petition and a contempt of court petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of the PTI, over the violation of the Supreme Court's March 1 verdict. However, no verdict had been issued.[19]

After the 2023 Pakistani protests, Pervez Khattak, the Chief Minister of the province from 2013 to 2018, was accused of inciting other PTI members to leave the party. Due to this, his basic party membership was terminated on 12 July 2023. Five days later, on 17 July, Khattak announced the formation of his new party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P) and many politicians across the province, mainly from the PTI, joined the new party. The most notable of these politicians was Chief Minister Mahmood Khan.[20][21]

In July, 52 former MPAs of the PTI signed a letter to the ECP seeking a "level-playing field" and alleging that the caretaker cabinet "consists almost exclusively of nominees from parties of Pakistan Democratic Movement and their allies like PPP and ANP". A month later, the ECP asked caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan to sack ministers who were openly involved in politics. As a result, on 10 August 2023, twenty-five members of the caretaker cabinet had tendered their resignations to the Chief Minister. One day later, the Governor accepted all of their resignations.[22]

Ban on PTI from contesting as a party

On 22 December 2023, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided against letting the PTI retain its electoral symbol, arguing that the party had failed to hold intra-party elections. On 22 December, the PTI approached the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the ECP's order and hence, a single-member bench suspended the ECP's order until 9 January 2024. On 30 December 2023, the ECP filed a review application within the PHC, and days later, a two-member bench withdrew the suspension order as it heard the case. However, on 10 January 2024, the two-member bench had declared the ECP's order to be "illegal, without any lawful authority, and of no legal effect. On 11 January, the ECP challenged this ruling in the Supreme Court, and on 13 January, a three-member bench ruled in favor of the ECP and stripped the PTI of its electoral symbol. As a consequence of this ruling, the PTI could not allot party tickets to any of its candidates. Therefore, all candidates of the party will be listed as independent candidates and each will have a different electoral symbol.[23]

Schedule

The schedule of the election was announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on 15 December 2023.[24] The by-elections for PK-22 and PK-91 constituencies, which were postponed due to an ISIS-K assassination and an unexpected heart failure, respectively, were announced by the ECP on 14 March and took place on 21 April 2024.[25]

More information Sr no, Poll Event ...

Electoral system

The 145 seats of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly consist of 115 general seats, whose members are elected by the first-past-the-post voting system through single-member constituencies. 26 seats are reserved for women and 8 seats are reserved for non-Muslims. The members on these seats are elected through proportional representation based on the total number of general seats secured by each political party.

Opinion polls

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Results

Result by party

91 19 16 11 3 2 1
PTI JUI(F) PML(N) PPP PTI(P) ANP IND

Vote Share of different parties in the election.

  PTI-Ind (40.76%)
  JUI-F (15.29%)
  ANP (8.68%)
  JI (6.20%)
  PML(N) (5.69%)
  PPP (5.69%)
  PTI-P (2.64%)
  IND (12.34%)
  Other Parties (2.72%)

Seat Share of different parties in the election.

  PTI-Ind (63.63%)
  JUI-F (13.28%)
  PML(N) (11.19%)
  PPP (7.70%)
  PTI-P (2.10%)
  ANP (1.40%)
  IND (0.70%)
More information Party, Votes ...

Rsults by division

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Results by district

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Results by constituency

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Members elected on Reserved seats

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Aftermath

After Elections all PTI backed Independents except Ali Amin Khan Gandapur joined Sunni Ittehad Council as per party policy.[27][28] 2 Independents from PK-82 Peshawar-XI and PK-106 Lakki Marwat-II joined PML(N).[29][30]

Elections for Speaker and Deputy Speaker

Babar Saleem Swati and Suraya Bibi elected as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.[31][32]

More information Candidate, Party ...

Election for Chief Minister

Ali Amin Khan Gandapur elected as Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by securing 90 votes.[34] He was sworn in Governor House Peshawar day after.[35]

More information Candidate, Party ...

See also

Notes

  1. 26 seats are reserved for women and 8 are reserved for non-Muslims filled through Proportional representation
  2. Contesting as independent candidates in all constituencies
  3. JUI (F) did not contest the 2018 elections, as they were part of an electoral alliance called Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
  4. This is a column that lists the percentage of undecided voters and non-voters in certain polls that publish this data. As some polls do not publish any data whatsoever on undecided voters and non-voters, the columns with survey participants that had a preference when polled are all that is needed to reach 100%. In surveys that do include data on non-voters and undecided voters, a scaling factor is applied to the margin of error and the rest of the data (for example, if the number of undecideds and non-voters equals 20%, each party would have their vote share scaled up by a factor of 100/80 (the formula is 100/(100-UndecidedPercentage)). This is done to keep consistency between the different polls and the different types data they provide.
  5. This poll or crosstabulation did not include any data about undecided voters or non-voters and cut them out completely from the published results.
  6. PK-22 election was postponed after PTI candidate (Rehan Zeb Khan) was assassinated by ISIS-K.
  7. Mubarak Zeb Khan is the brother of the assassinated candidate which caused the PK-22 election to be postponed
  8. PK-91 election was postponed as ANP candidate (Asmatullah Khattak) died from a heart attack on 30 January 2024.

References

  1. [1]
    https://elections.dunyanews.tv/election2024/election_result.php?assembly=kp
  2. [2]
    "Pakistan's general election may be delayed by new census". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2023-08-06.
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    Sadozai, Irfan (2023-08-17). "Election delay all but certain as ECP decides to go for fresh delimitation". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
  4. [4]
    Sadozai, Irfan; Guramani, Nadir; Bhatti, Haseeb; Momand, Abdullah (2023-11-02). "President, ECP agree on holding elections on Feb 8". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
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    "PTI votes surged by 120% in general elections 2018". The Express Tribune. 2018-07-28. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
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    "PTI remains on top with 65 PA seats in KP". The Nation. 2018-07-26. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
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    "K-P Assembly reposes trust in CM Mahmood". The Express Tribune. 2022-04-11. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
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    "PTI defeats joint opp in PK-7 Swat by-poll". The Express Tribune. 2022-06-26. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
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    Hayat, Arif (17 January 2023). "CM Mahmood sends summary for dissolution of KP Assembly to governor". DAWN News. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
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    Hayat, Arif (18 January 2023). "KP Assembly dissolved as governor approves CM Mahmood's summary". DAWN News. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
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    Hayat, Arif (20 January 2023). "KP govt, opposition pick Azam Khan as caretaker CM". DAWN News. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
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    Siddiqui, Naveed (20 February 2023). "President Alvi unilaterally announces April 9 as Punjab, KP election date". DAWN News. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
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    Sadozai, Irfan (2023-03-29). "After Punjab, ECP sets KP election date for October 8". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
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    Habib, Rashid (2023-03-25). "PTI challenges postponement of Punjab, KP elections in SC". ARY NEWS. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
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    "PTI strips basic party membership of Parvez Khattak". Samaa. 2023-07-12. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
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    Hakeem, Abdul (2023-07-17). "Khattak launches breakaway faction PTI-Parliamentarians". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2023-07-17.
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    Hayat, Arif (2023-08-10). "19 members of KP caretaker cabinet resign on ECP's directions: interim minister". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2023-08-10.
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    Bhatti, Haseeb (2024-01-13). "PTI bat-tered, loses iconic electoral symbol as SC restores ECP order". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
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    "Pakistan announces by-elections for vacant seats in National and provincial assemblies on April 21". Times of India. 14 March 2024.
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    "Members elected on Reserved seats for KPK assembly announced".
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    "Gohar, Ayub not joining SIC for PTI's internal polls". The Express Tribune. 2024-02-25. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
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    Dawn.com (2024-02-19). "PTI-backed independents to join Sunni Ittehad Council: Barrister Gohar". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
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    Raja, AHMD (2024-02-17). "Independent candidate Malik Tariq Awan joins PML-N". Retrieved 2024-03-07.
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    "Seven Independent MNAs, 21 Independent MPAs Join PML-N". The Friday Times. 2024-02-19. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
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    "Imran Khan's PTI-backed independent candidates take oath as Speaker Deputy Speaker in Pak's KPK assembly". The Week. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
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    Ali, Sajjad (2024-02-29). "Babar Salim Swati Elected Speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly". Pashto News and Current Affairs Channel | Khyber News. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  33. [33]
    "Speaker, deputy speaker elected for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan provincial assemblies in Pakistan". Arab News PK. 2024-02-29. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
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    Desk, BR Web (2024-03-01). "PTI's Ali Amin Gandapur elected KPK chief minister". Brecorder. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  35. [35]
    "Ali Amin Gandapur sworn in as Chief Minister of KPK". Radio Pakistan.
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