2024 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial election

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115 out of 145 seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly[a] 73 seats needed for a majority
Registered	21,928,119
Turnout	38.11 (7.41%)[1]
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ali Amin Gandapur Akram Khan Durrani Amir Muqam Party PTI-Ind.[b] JUI (F) PML(N) Leader since - 2 October 2018 18 April 2017 Leader's seat Dera Ismail Khan-III Bannu-IV Swat-III (lost) Last election Did not contest[c] 0 Seats before 95 3 7 Seats won 93 9 9 Seat change 2 6 2 Popular vote 3,135,040 1,176,360 437,450 Percentage 40.76% 15.29% 5.69% Swing 8.44pp 1.71pp 4.78pp
Map of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa showing Provincial Assembly constituencies and winning parties.
Chief Minister before election Mahmood Khan PTI Elected Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur PTI-Ind.

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.

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]

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