PESHAWAR: A total of 15.316 million people will participate in the July 25 general elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, showing an increase of 3.05 million in the number of voters from 12.266 million in the previous 2013 polls.

The Election Commission of Pakistan will set up 126,85 polling stations in the province, including 4,145 stations for men, 3,617 for men and 4,923 combined.

Also read: What will the ‘wave’ bring to KP this time?

According to the polling scheme released by the ECP, there are a total of 8.705 million male and 6.61 million female voters in the province.

During the last polls, the registered male voters in the province totaled 7.008 million and female voters 5.257 million.

6.61m women among 15.316m people with franchise

A total of 37,587 polling booths will be established, including 21,372 for men and 16,215 for women.

Similarly, 12,685 presiding officers, 75174 assistant presiding officers and 37587 polling officers will be deputed in the polling stations.

The highest number of registered voters is 1.693 million in Peshawar, whereas the lowest number of 38,176 voters is in the newly-created Kolai Palas Kohistan district followed by 55,481 in Kohistan and 60,963 in Lower Kohistan.

The second highest number of voters i.e. 1.239 million is registered in Mardan followed by 1.193 million in Swat, 947,076 in Mansehra, 912,669 in Swabi, 881,017 in Charsadda and 838,726 in Abbottabad.

Keeping in view the number of voters, the largest constituency is NA-17 Haripur with 657,648 voters followed by NA-35 Bannu with 578,872 voters, NA-13 Mansehra with 519,590 and NA-32 Kohat with 506,699 voters.

Similarly, the constituency with the smallest number of voters is NA-11 Kohistan, which has 154,620 voters followed by NA-37 Tank with 180,872 voters.

For the five national and 14 provincial assembly constituencies in Peshawar, 1,190 polling stations will be established including 650 for men, 512 for women and 28 combined.

Similarly, for three NA and eight PA constituencies in Mardan, 1,031 polling stations will be set up including 333 for men, 304 for women and 394 combined.

In Swat, 770 polling stations with 276 for male voters, 256 for females and 238 combined stations, will be established.

VOTERS DISPARITY: The polling scheme exposed the disparity between the number of voters in different Khyber Pakhtunkhwa constituencies as in Chitral, 269,579 voters have a single constituency, PK-1, whereas in Kolai Palas Kohistan, there are only 38,176 voters in the constituency, PK-27.

Similarly, the number of voters in PK-25 Kohistan is 55,481, whereas there are 60,963 voters in PK-26 Lower Kohistan.

Following delimitation of constituencies, the number of KP Assembly constituencies in Chitral was reduced from two to one.

During the previous 2013 elections, Kohistan was a single district having three provincial assembly seats.

During the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s government, Kohistan was divided into three districts, including Kohistan, Lower Kohistan and Kolai Palas Kohistan.

Now, all three districts have a single PA constituency each, whereas all three are combined in National Assembly constituency, NA-11 Kohistan.

According to the 2017 Population census, the population of Chitral is 447,362, whereas that of the three districts of Kohistan is 784,711.

Interestingly, of the total 447,362 residents of Chitral, 269,579 are voters, whereas with much larger population of Kohistan, the local voters total 154,620 only.

Similarly, compared to Kohistan, the number of voters in Tank are 180,872 with only one KP Assembly seat, Karak, Malakand, Shangla, Hangu and Battagram have two seats each with 404461, 386449, 374334, 275947 and 258155 voters, respectively.

Same is the case in NA constituencies as NA-17 Haripur has 657,648 voters, whereas NA- 11 Kohistan has 154,620 voters.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2018