ISLAMABAD: With the total number of registered voters reaching 112.39 million, the gap between male and female voters has climbed to 12.72 million.

A document on the latest voters’ statistics exclusively available with Dawn shows that the number of male and female voters across the country stood at 62.55m (55.66 per cent) and 49.83m (44.34pc), respectively. The number of transgender people on the electoral rolls comes to 2,489 (0.002pc).

The document reveals that Punjab accounts for a gender gap of 6.73m — more than the three other provinces and the federal capital combined. The total number of registered voters in Punjab is 64.35m — 35.54m (55.23pc) male and 28.80m (44.77pc) female voters. Voters from the province include 1,851 transgender persons.

In Sindh, the total number of registered voters is 23.64m — 13.10m (55.41pc) male and 10.54m (44.58pc). The gap between male and female voters comes to 2.56m.The number of transgender people registered as voters in the province stands at 421.

2,489 transgender people among 112.39m registered voters

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the number of registered voters is 18.95m — 10.81m (57.08pct) male and 8.13m (42.92pc) female. The gender gap stands at 2.68m. The number of transgender voters in the province is 127.

The number of registered voters in Balochistan is 4.63m — 2.66m (57.55pc) male and 1.9m (42.45pc) female voters. The gender gap stands at 0.699m.

In Islamabad, the number of registered voters is 803,538 — 422,639 (52.60pc) male and 380,892 (47.40pc) female voters. This means the federal capital has the highest proportion of women voters, compared to the four provinces. As many as seven transgender persons are enrolled as voters in the federal area.

In the 2013 general election, the gap between male and female voters was 10.99m, which jumped to 11.65m in September 2015, at the start of the local government elections.

There were 86.18m registered voters in 2013 — 48.59m (56.37pc) men and 37.59m (43.62pc) women. The figures released in September 2015 showed that the number of registered voters had gone up to 93.07m.There were 52.36m (56.26pc) male and 40.70m (43.73pc) female voters, which meant the registration of women had not kept pace with that of men.

After revision of the electoral rolls in 2016, the number reached 97.01m — 54.59m (56.27pc) male and 42.42m (43.72pc) female voters.

The number of voters prior to the 2018 elections was 97.01m — 54.5m men and 42.42m women.

After revision of the electoral rolls in September 2018, the number reached 106m — 59.24m (55.89pc) male and 46.75m (44.11pc) female voters.

The statistics released in April 2019 showed the number of voters going up to 108m. They included 60.40m (55.80pc) male and 47.82m (44.19pc) female voters. Since then another over four million have been added to the electoral rolls.

Two districts of Punjab — Lahore and Faisalabad — account for a difference of over one million in male and female voters. The gap in Lahore is over 0.600m and that in Faisalabad more than 0.470m.

The 20 districts with the largest gender gaps include 17 districts in Punjab, two in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2020