Ten of the 61 National Assembly (NA) constituencies in Sindh province recorded a voter registration gender gap exceeding the legally permissible threshold of 10 percent, according to the constituency-wise electoral rolls published by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on 3 February 2026.
During the General Elections of 2018 (GE-2018), 27 NA constituencies recorded a gender gap in voter registration exceeding 10 percent. This represented approximately 9.9 percent of all NA constituencies nationwide and 44.3 percent of NA constituencies within Sindh province.
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By the time of the General Elections 2024 (GE-2024), the number of such constituencies with a gender gap exceeding 10 percent had declined slightly from 27 to 10, accounting for 3.8 percent of all NA constituencies and 16.4 percent of all NA constituencies of Sindh Province.
Similarly, according to data released in February 2026, the same 10 NA constituencies recorded a gender gap exceeding 10 percent during the general elections, all of which are located within Karachi Division. These figures suggest a continuing, though uneven, trend toward greater gender balance in the electoral rolls. reflecting a gradual but steady narrowing of the gender gap in voter registration across the country. While the overall trend is encouraging, 10 constituencies remaining above the legal threshold indicate that structural and sociocultural barriers to female voter registration persist in parts of the country.
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What the Elections Act requires
The continued presence of a gap of this magnitude nonetheless underscores the need for sustained institutional actions. Section 47(1) of the Elections Act, 2017 requires the ECP to annually publish disaggregated data of registered male and female voters in each constituency and to highlight the difference in their numbers. Under Section 47(2), the Commission must take special measures in any constituency where this difference exceeds 10 percent, including measures to reduce this variation. Section 47(3) further specifies that these measures shall include action by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to expedite National Identity Card (NIC) issuance for women in affected constituencies, and by the ECP to enroll them as voters in the relevant electoral area. This provision places a clear, joint institutional responsibility on both NADRA and the ECP to address the gender gap where it crosses the legal threshold.
These measures include targeted voter registration campaigns, NIC facilitation drives, and community-level outreach to address the barriers that continue to limit women’s registration. Consistent implementation of these provisions is critical to ensuring that the downward trend in the gender gap is sustained and accelerated in the electoral rolls ahead of the next general elections.
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