Here’s Why Young Voters Will be the Deciding Factor in 2018 Elections

According to the statistics revealed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the youth of Pakistan that is eligible to vote amounts to 44% of the nearly 97 million registered voters in the country. It is safe to say that the youth of the country shall be the deciding factor for the 2018 elections.

42.4 million Young Voters

Youth eligible to vote and belonging to the age group 18-35, sums up to 42.4 million voters. Its active participation shall prove crucial in deciding the outcome of election results.

Out of these 42.4 million voters,

• 7 million voters – 15% of the voters belong to the age group: 18-25
• 7 million voters – 29% of the voters belong to the age group: 26-35

Ratio Of Voters Across The Country

Voters below 25

• Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) has the highest number of voters aged below 25. They comprise of 23% – 473,295 voters of the total 2,142,552 registered voters.
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 18%
• Punjab: 15%
• Balochistan: 15%
• Islamabad: 14%
• The number of young voters in Sindh contributes to 12% of the total 20.6 million voters in the province. Sindh contributes to the lowest number of young voters.

The 18-25 age group

The country has disparate gaps in the number of both male and female voters in the age group 18-25. The data below shows the difference in the number of male and female young voters belonging to this age group.

• Fata:
  • Number of female voters: 135,984 that is 38% of the total 473,295 voters
  • Men’s share, however, stands at 62% that is 337,311 of the total voters
• Balochistan:
  • The number of female voters is only 174,185
  • While the number of male voters is 365,783 out of a total 539,968 voters
• KPK:
  • The number of female voters is 819,323
  • While the number of male voters is 1.7 million out of a total of 2.53 million young voters
• Sindh:
  • The total number of young voters is 2.55 million,
  • Out of these, only 857,114 are women
  • And 69 million are men
• Punjab:
  • Out of a total 8.50 million young voters,
  • 6million are men
  • And 2.9million are women

The 26-35 years age group

Balochistan and FATA have the highest number of voters belonging to the age group 26-35. The number comprises of 31% of voters in this age group.

While 29% of Sindh’s total voters belong to the age group 26-35, the percentage stands at 28% in Punjab and Islamabad.

The total number of voters belonging to the 36-45 category is 20.3 million, while the highest number of voters in this age group was contributed by Sindh with a total of 4.7 million voters.

Via Dawn