ISLAMABAD, May 13, 2013 – Based on data gathered by Free and Fair Election Network observers at polling stations showing impossible voter turnout greater than 100%, FAFEN called on the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to release all polling station Statements of the Count (Form XIV) to the public on its website before certifying any final election results in any constituency.
The voter turnout was more than 100% in at least 49 polling stations out of 8,119 polling stations sampled by FAFEN across Pakistan, according to Statements of the Count delivered so far by FAFEN observers.
ECP must not include votes from these polling stations in calculations of constituency election results, and should consider re-polling in these stations.
At least 32 polling stations with greater than 100% turnout were in Punjab, 10 in Sindh, six in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one in Balochistan. The polling stations with impossible voter turnout figures included 19 female polling stations, 16 male stations and 14 combined (male and female) stations.
Voter turnout is calculated on the basis of the registered voters for each polling station as given on the ECP website http://ecp.gov.pk/PollingScheme.aspx. Polling stations included in the analysis are only those in which presiding officers accurately calculated the total number of ballots as recorded on the Statement of the Count (Form XIV).
FAFEN has recommended since 2008 that ECP should void the results from any polling station where more ballots are cast than the number of registered voters, and should investigate highly improbable cases of voter turnout, such as those greater than 80%.
Best practice for election transparency requires that polling station ballot counts and vote counts should be posted as quickly as possible on the ECP website, both as scans of the original forms and in data tables that can be scrutinized. This information was made public by ECP for the first time many months after General Election 2008, based on persistent FAFEN advocacy.
Polling Stations with Greater than 100% Voter Turnout
