In the 1993 National Assembly election, 275,834 votes were rejected out of 20,730,766 polled, a rate of 1.33% — a marginal rise of 0.25 percentage points from the record low of 1990. Nationwide, 484,945 ballots were rejected across all assemblies. Balochistan again recorded the highest provincial rate at 2.18%, while Punjab was the lowest at 0.82%. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stood at 1.37% and Sindh at 0.97%.
Election Context: 1993
Pakistan’s 1993 general elections were held on 6 October 1993 following the dismissal of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government and a period of caretaker administration. The elections were supervised by a caretaker government and observed by domestic and international monitors. The PPP, under Benazir Bhutto, formed the government following the results. Balochistan’s rejection rate of 2.18% continued a persistent pattern of above-average rejection rates in the province — a pattern documented across every election cycle in this dataset.
Breakdown — Rejected Ballots
| Assembly | Rejected Ballots | Rejection Rate |
| National Assembly Election | 275,834 | 1.33% |
| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Election | 32,896 | 1.37% |
| Punjab Assembly Election | 119,834 | 0.82% |
| Sindh Assembly Election | 39,226 | 0.97% |
| Balochistan Assembly Election | 17,155 | 2.18% |
Source: TDEA–FAFEN compiled dataset from Election Commission of Pakistan records.
What Is a Rejected Ballot?
A rejected ballot is a ballot paper excluded from the vote count. Polling staff identify and set aside such ballots during the counting process at the polling station. The Returning Officer (RO) then reviews these determinations during the consolidation of results, and the ballot is formally rejected only after that scrutiny. Pakistani electoral procedure specifies four grounds for rejection: the ballot does not bear the presiding officer’s official stamp and signature; it carries any mark or writing beyond the Assistant Presiding Officer’s (APO) official seal and signature; an extraneous paper or material is attached to it; or the voting mark falls simultaneously in the boxes of two candidates in a way that makes it impossible to determine which candidate the voter intended to select.
Rejection does not automatically indicate fraud or deliberate misconduct. Voter error — including accidental double-marking or stamps placed outside the designated box — accounts for a documented share of rejections in every election.
