The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) conducted elections for 2,640 vacant seats in the legislatures and local governments (LG) during the year 2025, however, the LG elections in Punjab and the federal capital remained elusive this year too.

While elections are often perceived as a once-in-five-years event, the electoral activity continues throughout the period between general elections in the form of by-elections and periodic polls for legislatures and LGs. A review of ECP notifications shows that these over 2,600 elections were held to fill in the vacancies in the Senate, the National and Provincial Assemblies, and a large number of general and reserved seats in LGs of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces. Although the election process for ICT is underway with the polling scheduled for February 15, 2026, the uncertainty prevails around the LG election in Punjab.

Read FAFEN’s coverage on the status of local government election in Islamabad

What were the first and last polls of 2025?

The first polling of the year took place on January 5, 2025, at 15 polling stations of PB-45 Quetta-VIII, as directed by an Election Tribunal.

The final electoral contest of 2025 was to be held on December 28 for local governments in Quetta district; however, these polls were suspended due to an order of the Federal Constitutional Court only three days before the polling day. The last polling, therefore, was held on December 14, 2025 for a by-election in PS-09 Shikarpur-III.

How many LG elections took place in 2025?

Elections for vacancies in LGs across the country made up the largest share of electoral activity during the year.  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded the highest number of LG by-polls, with contests held for 1,028 general and reserved seats in the Village and Neighbourhood Councils.

In Balochistan, by-elections were held for 901 seats across different local government tiers. Moreover, the polling for electing LGs in the provincial capital Quetta took place on December 28. Quetta LG polls were pending since 2022, when the rest of the province elected LGs.

Sindh saw by-elections for 672 general and reserved seats in both the primary councils, i.e. Union Councils and Union Committees, and the secondary councils, i.e. Municipal Committees, Taluka Committees, District Councils and Metropolitan Corporation. Nearly 600 of these by-elections were held for the seats reserved for non-Muslims, transgenders, women, labour/peasants, and youth for which no one had contested during the province-wide LG elections held in 2022-2023.

Moreover, one by-election was held to fill in a casual vacancy in the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board.

How many National Assembly elections took place in 2025?

The ECP conducted by-election proceedings in 2025 to fill in eight general seats and two women-reserved seats in the National Assembly. These vacancies arose due to deaths or disqualifications of elected members, as well as the exhaustion of party lists for women-reserved seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The constituencies that went to by-polls included NA-213 Umerkot, NA-66 Wazirabad, NA-129 Lahore-XIII, NA-143 Sahiwal-III, NA-185 Dera Ghazi Khan-II, NA-96 Faisalabad-II, NA-104 Faisalabad-X and NA-18 Haripur.

In addition, following the orders of the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court in the reserved-seats case, by-election proceedings were initiated to fill women-reserved seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through fresh nominations and scrutiny of candidates of the parties that were allocated additional seats.

How many Provincial Assembly elections were held in 2025?

At the provincial level, by-elections were held to fill in nine seats during the year. These included eight constituencies in Punjab and one in Sindh, vacated on grounds similar to the above-mentioned National Assembly constituencies.

The constituencies that went to by-polls included PP-52 Sialkot-IX, PP-87 Mianwali-III, PP-203 Sahiwal-VI, PP-98 Faisalabad-I, PP-73 Sargodha-III, PP-115 Faisalabad-XVIII, PP-116 Faisalabad-XIX, PP-269 Muzaffargarh-II, and PS-9 Shikarpur-III.

How many Senate elections were held in 2025?

In 2025, elections were conducted for 11 Senate seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These polls had been pending since March 2024, when the ECP suspended them due to vacant reserved-seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

In addition, seven Senate by-elections were held during the year to fill vacancies caused by resignations, deaths, or disqualifications of Senators from Balochistan, Sindh, and Punjab.