Sindh Assembly Turnout — Non-Party-Based General Elections, 1985

Sindh recorded 3.42 million votes polled for the Provincial Assembly in the Non-Party-Based General Elections, 1985, against 7.65 million registered voters, producing a turnout of 44.7%.

Sindh is Pakistan’s second-most populous province and the country’s economic and commercial hub, with Karachi — the provincial capital — serving as the largest city and the seat of the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Sindh’s electorate encompasses both the densely populated urban constituencies of Karachi and Hyderabad and the vast rural constituencies of interior Sindh, which include some of the country’s most agrarian and disadvantaged communities.

Sindh’s registered electorate comprised 4.33 million male voters (56.6%) and 3.32 million female voters (43.4%). The gender gap in registration stood at 1.01 million — 13.2% of Sindh’s registered electorate.

Votes polled for the Sindh Assembly totalled 3.42 million against a registered electorate of 7.65 million, producing a turnout of 44.7%. Sindh’s provincial assembly turnout has shown more variation across the twelve elections in this series than Punjab’s, partly reflecting the pronounced urban-rural divergence in political mobilisation patterns within the province.

Gender-disaggregated votes-polled data are not available for the Sindh Assembly in the 1985 elections. Systematic gender-disaggregated recording and publication of polling data began with the 2018 elections.

Rejected ballots in the Sindh Assembly election numbered 60,329 — 1.8% of total votes polled in the province. The rejection rate in Sindh has ranged from 0.7% (1990) to 4.1% (2013 and 2018) across the twelve elections, with the higher rates in 2013 and 2018 potentially reflecting changed electoral processes, increased voter roll complexity, and shifts in the scale of participation.

Sindh’s registered electorate grew from 5.3 million in 1970 to 27.0 million in 2024 — a more than fivefold increase over 54 years. Votes polled for the Sindh Assembly increased from 3.1 million in 1970 to 11.7 million in 2024. Across all twelve elections, Sindh’s highest recorded Assembly turnout was 60.7% in 1988 and its lowest was 29% in 1997.