ISLAMABAD, May 21: Against a general perception that the emergence of a third force would adversely affect the PML-N vote bank in the May 11 elections, figures released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday revealed that the party polled 119 per cent more votes than in the 2008 elections.

The PML-N is on top with its candidates for the National Assembly securing 14.86 million votes as against 6.78m in 2008. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) which had boycotted the 2008 elections has succeeded in making inroads into the strongholds of other parties across the country. It has become the second largest party with 7.67m votes.

The PPP, which had led the last coalition government, has lost over one-third of its vote bank. The party’s candidates, who had clinched 10.6m votes in the 2008 elections, have managed to secure only 6.85m.

The vote bank of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has declined by two per cent to 2.45m. It had secured 2.5m votes in 2008.

The PPP has emerged as the single largest party in Sindh with its candidates for the provincial assembly securing 3.2m votes, followed by the MQM with 2.5m. The PTI candidates for the Sindh Assembly have secured a little over 0.6m votes, with the PML-N standing behind by a few thousand votes.

The PML-N candidates for the Punjab Assembly secured 11.23m votes, enabling the party to retain the reigns of the provincial government on its own. The PTI has secured 4.9m votes in the province, followed by the PPP with 2.4m.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PTI has swept the polls becoming the only party to secure over 10m votes. The PML-N clinched 8.5m and the PPP 4.6m votes.

In Balochistan, the PML-N got 134,758 votes, followed by the PPP (51,976) and the PTI (24,030).

TURNOUT: The overall voter turnout for the National Assembly elections was 55.02 per cent, an all-time high despite threats of terror attacks. The highest turnout of 61.96pc was recorded in the Federal Capital where 389,976 votes were polled. The number of registered voters in the capital was 626,383.

In Punjab, the turnout was 59.62pc. The number of registered voters in the province was 48.8m and 28.76m votes were cast.

In Sindh, the turnout was 53.82pc. The number of registered voters in the province was 17.86m and 9.78m of them cast their votes.

The turnout in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was 44.83pc, with 5.4m casting their vote from among 12.26m registered voters.

In Balochistan, out of 3.1m registered voters, 1.3m (42.5pc) cast their votes.

The turnout in Fata was the lowest but encouraging given the security situation. Out of 1.36m registered voters, over half million cast their votes.

In the provincial assembly elections, the turnout in Punjab was 58.52pc, followed by 54.62pc in Sindh, 44.74pc in KP and 40.86pc in Balochistan.

HIGH TURNOUT: The highest turnout was recorded in NA-191 (Bahawalnagar) in Punjab where 211,774 votes were cast out of a total of 326,972 registered voters.

Former military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq’s son Mohammad Ejazul Haq of the PML-Z won the seat by securing 79,306 votes.

Other 10 constituencies with high turnout are: NA-58 Attock (83.09pc) where Malik Ihtebar Khan of the PML-N won by securing 85,244 votes; NA-228 Umerkot (68.84pc) where Nawab Yousif Talpur of the PPPP emerged victorious with 99,700 votes; NA-73 Bhakkar-I (68.31pc) where Abdul Majeed Khan of the PML-N secured 97,688 votes; NA-74 Bhakkar-II (68.16pc) where independent candidate Dr Mohammad Afzal Khan Dhandla won the seat by bagging 118,196 votes; NA-181 Layyah (68.11pc) where Sahibzada Faizul Hassan of the PML-N was the winner with 119,403 votes; NA-188 Bahawalnagar-I (67.99pc) where Syed Muhammad Asghar, an independent candidate, won with 90,537 votes; NA-91 Jhang-VI (67.82pc) where independent candidate Najaf Abbas Sial with 91,301 votes was the winner; NA-182 Layyah-II (67.82pc) where Syed Mohammad Saqlain Bukhari of the PML-N was the winner with 85,292 votes; and NA-233 Dadu-II (67.50pc) was won by Imran Zafar Leghari of the PPPP.

LOW TURNOUT: The lowest turnout of 11.57pc was recorded in NA-42 Tribal Area-VII where only 12,649 voters exercised their right out of a total of 108,056 registered votes. The seat was won by Muhammad Jamaluddin of the JUI-F with 3,468 votes.

Other 10 constituencies with low turnout are: NA-271 Kharan-Washuk-Panjgur (19.06pc) where retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch of the PML-N was the winner with 7,388 votes; NA-43 Tribal Area-VIII (26.14pc) where independent candidate Bismillah Khan won with 13,929 votes; NA-272 Kech-Gwadar (29.92pc) where Sayed Essa Nori of the Balochistan National Party was the winner with 15,835 votes; NA-36 Tribal Area-I (29.92pc) where independent candidate Bilal Rehman became victorious with 9,005 votes; NA-34 Lower Dir (30.15pc) where Shahibzada Mohammad Yaqub of Jamaat-i-Islami won with 49,475 votes; NA-16 Hangu (30.81pc) where Khial Zaman Aurakzai of the PTI became the winner with 24,067 votes; NA-31 Shangla (31.67pc) where Dr Ibadullah of the PML-N won by securing 30,916 votes; NA-33 Upper Dir (32.14pc) where Sahibzada Tariqullah of Jamaat-i-Islami was the winner with 42,582 votes; and NA-44 Tribal Area-IX (32.43pc) where Shahabuddin Khan of the PML-N won by bagging 15,114 votes.