• Balochistan, KP still have gap of over 10pc between male, female voters
• Punjab records lowest gender difference

ISLAMABAD: Gender gap among voters has gone down below 12 million for the first time in recent years, the latest statistics released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) show. The gap was as high as 12.72m in July last year, but shrunk to 12.41m in October of the same year.

According to the statistics, the total number of voters across the country stood at 121.19m. Among them were 66.5m (54.87 per cent) males and 54.69m (45.13pc) females. That translates into a difference of 11.81m (9.74pc).

However, an analysis of the statistics reveals that two provinces — Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) — still had a difference of over 10pc between male and female voters.

The total number of voters in Balochistan is 5.04m — 2.87m (56.98pc) men and 2.17m (43.02pc) women. The differnce is as high as 13.96pc.

In KP, the total number of registered voters came to 20.61m, with 11.48m (55.73pc) males and 9.12m (44.27pc) females. The variation was calculated at 11.46pc.

Among the four provinces, Punjab, which otherwise accounts for 6.19m (52.44pc) of the total gender gap of 11.81m, has the lowest variation of 8.98pc between male and female voters. The total number of individuals enrolled as voters in the province is 69.09m, out of whom 37.62m (54.49pc) are males and 31.42m (45.51pc) females.

On the other hand, Sindh has a total of 25.58m registered voters, out of whom 14.03m (54.88pc) are males and 11.54m (45.12pc) females.

The federal capital, on the other hand, has the lowest gender variation, which stood at 5.98pc. The total number of registered voters was 0.909m, with 0.481m (52.99pc) males and 0.427m (47.01m) females.

In October last year, the total number of voters stood at 115.75m. As many as 64.07m (55.36pc) were men and 51.66m (44.64pc) were women. The data of voters obtained by Dawn in July last year showed the total number of voters at 112.39m, with 62.55m (55.66pc) males and 51.66m (44.34 pc) females, translating into a gender gap of 12.72m.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2021