Votes for PTI surged 120% this election

Official statistics show that Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has not only gained in terms number of seats in the parliament but also significantly increased its vote bank across the country, donning the cape of a national party.In the National Assembly, where the PTI emerged as the largest party, its vote bank increased from 7.6mn voters in the 2013 general elections to 16.8mn in this year’s election.The PTI boycotted the 2008 election while just 160,686 people voted for PTI candidates in the 2002 election.Imran Khan was the only PTI candidate elected to the National Assembly in 2002.The Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz’s (PML-N) vote bank shrank to 12.89mn voters for the National Assembly.It had bagged 14.8mn votes for the National Assembly seats in the 2013 election, 6.8mn votes in 2008, and 3.2mn votes in 2002.The Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), the breakaway faction of the PML-N, had won the 2002 polls, securing 6.8mn votes. It bagged 8mn votes in 2008.The PML-Q’s vote bank drastically shrank in 2013 when it secured only 1.4mn votes.This time around, its vote bank improved, receiving 5.1mn votes for the National Assembly.The vote bank of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) which entered the elections under the name of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), significantly shrank in all provinces other than Sindh, where it would be coming to power for the third consecutive term.The PPP secured 6.9mn votes for the National Assembly this year. In 2013 it won 6.91mn votes, 10.66mn votes in 2008, and 7.3mn in the 2002 election.Independently-elected legislators once again retained fourth position in terms of the number of overall votes polled.In total, all such candidates secured 6mn votes this year.Independents secured 5.8mn votes in 2013, 3.8mn votes in 2008, and 2.8mn votes in 2002.The recently-revived Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of various religious parties headed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam – Fazlur (JUI-F) and Jamat-e-Islami, managed to secure 2.5mn votes for the National Assembly this time.The MMA was formed just before the 2002 general election, where it emerged as the third largest party in terms of the number of seats in the National Assembly with 59 directly-elected lawmakers.A total of 3.1mn votes were polled for the MMA in 2002.The alliance disintegrated when the Jamat-e-Islami boycotted the 2008 general election, which the JUI-F took part in.The JUI-F secured 760,000 votes in 2008 and 1.4mn votes in the 2013 general elections.In 2013, the Jamat-e-Islami secured 960,000 votes.To the surprise of everyone, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), the religious party led by clerics of the Barelvi sect, secured 2.2mn votes for the National Assembly.The party was created in the wake of protests after Mumtaz Qadri, a police guard who assassinated Punjab governor Salman Taseer, was hanged.It gained public attention when it staged a three-week-long sit-in at Islamabad last year.The TLP secured more votes than the PPP for the Punjab Assembly.Its candidates on Punjab Assembly seats secured 1.8mn votes while the PPP got 1.7mn votes.The TLP secured 400,000 votes for the Sindh Assembly, where it managed to bag two seats.Its votes for the provincial assembly almost doubled those of the PML-N, which secured just 230,000 votes while Mustafa Kamal’s Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) got 160,000 votes.TLP candidates for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly bagged 78,125 votes while they were able to get 10,999 votes in the Baluchistan Assembly.The PTI’s vote bank for the Punjab Assembly more than doubled.It is leading in the Punjab Assembly, with its candidates securing 11.1mn votes.In 2013, the PTI secured 4.9mn votes.The PML-N secured 10.5mn votes from Punjab this time, compared with 11.36mn in 2013 and 5.5mn in 2008.Independent candidates secured 6.1mn votes, the TLP 1.8mn, the PPP 1.7mn, the MMA 440,000, and the PML-Q 390,000 votes.Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek, a shadow party, on whose tickets candidates backed by Hafiz Saeed’s Milli Muslim League (MML) contested polls after MML was denied registration by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), secured 230,000 votes for Punjab Assembly.The Pakistan Rah-e-Haq party, a shadow party on whose ticket candidates of the banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) and former Sipahe Sahaba contested, only secured 4,188 votes for the provincial legislature.Rah-e-Haq candidates for the National Assembly secured 55,184 votes while the Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek’s candidates bagged 171,587 votes.In the Sindh Assembly, the PPP consolidated its position.Its candidates secured 3.8mn votes this time compared with 3.2mn in 2013 and 3.6mn in 2008.Candidates of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) secured 1.48mn votes, the PTI 1.42mn, the MQM 770,000, independents 760,000, the MMA 590,000, the TLP 410,000, the PML-N 230,000, and the PSP got 160,000 votes.In the KP Assembly, the PTI dominated. Its vote bank more than doubled in the province, securing the second consecutive term.PTI-backed candidates secured 10.39mn votes in 2013, but this time around the party secured 21.1mn votes.The PML-N secured 860,000 votes in 2013, but in 2018, it got only 640,000 votes.The PPP secured 470,000 votes in 2013 and 590,000 votes this year.The MMA secured 1.1mn votes, independents 920,000, the ANP 790,000, and the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) secured 120,000 votes for the provincial assembly.Formed in March this year, the Baluchistan Awami Party (BAP) emerged as the leading party in the province with 430,000 votes.Independents secured 310,000, the MMA 260,000, the Baluchistan National Party – Mengal (BNP-Mengal) 120,000, the PTI 100,000, and the National Party (NP) 870,000 votes.Meanwhile, the PPP secured only 57,663 votes and the PML-N 28,992 votes for the Baluchistan Assembly.The biggest losers in terms of votes were the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)m which had been dominant in the urban areas of Sindh province for the past four decades.Not only did its number seats decline, but the overall number of votes also decreased.Post-Altaf Hussain MQM is now registered under the name of MQM-Pakistan, which bagged just 720,000 votes for the National Assembly.It had secured 2.4mn votes in 2013, and 2.5mn in the 2008 election.The MQM had secured 2.59 million votes for the Sindh Assembly in 2008 and 2.51mn votes in the 2013 election.However, this time around, it was able to secure just 770,000 votes for the Provincial Assembly seats.Hasil Bizenjo’s National Party secured only 87,844 votes and Mehmood Khan Achakzai’s Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) won 109,488 votes for Provincial Assembly.Both these parties were part of the ruling coalition at the Centre and Baluchistan governments.