Provincial elections were held in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on 8 February 2024 to elect members of the 12th Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On 5 August 2023, the results of the 2023 digital census were approved by the Council of Common Interests headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Therefore, elections have been delayed for several months, as new delimitations will be published on 14 December 2023, as announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). On 2 November 2023, the ECP announced, in agreement with the President of Pakistan, Arif Alvi, that the elections would be held on 8 February 2024. This election was held concurrently with nationwide general elections and other provincial elections.
Background In the 2018 election, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won a landslide victory in the province by securing a two-thirds majority in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. The PTI became the only party in the province's history to return to government with more seats after completing a 5-year term.
Before the 2018 elections, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) (JUI-F) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) restored their electoral alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, to counter the PTI's support but failed to make gains and in fact lost even more seats.
The Pashtun nationalist and leftist Awami National Party (ANP) also failed to counter the PTI, but slightly increased their share of seats.
The conservative Pakistan Muslim league (N) (PML-N) once the most popular party in the Hazara Division, also faced defeat and was nearly wiped out from the region.
Due to circumstances arising after the successful motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Imran Khan, a motion of no confidence was also filed to remove Chief Minister Mahmood Khan from office. The motion was rejected on 11 April 2022, as 88 votes were cast against the motion to just 2 in favor.
On 26 June 2022, the PTI flipped the PK-7 Swat-VI constituency in a by-election, winning by a margin of 4,341 votes and defeated the ANP, which enjoyed the support of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), particularly the JUI(F) and PML(N).
On 17 January 2023, Chief Minister Khan sent a letter to Governor Haji Ghulam Ali, advising him to dissolve the Provincial Assembly. Ali accepted the advice the next day. Elections must be conducted within 90 days of the dissolution, meaning by or before 18 April 2023.
After two days of talks, on 20 January 2023, the government and opposition agreed on appointing Muhammad Azam Khan, a former bureaucrat, as the caretaker Chief Minister.
After a month of delay from Governor Ali and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), President Arif Alvi decided to unilaterally appoint 9 April 2023 as the date for the provincial election.
On 1 March 2023, in a 3-2 split verdict, the Supreme Court ruled that since Governor Ali had dissolved the Assembly, he was "in breach of his constitutional duty" by not appointing an election date and should immediately do so, after consultation with the ECP. As a consequence, the date appointed by President Alvi was set aside.
On 15 March 2023, Governor Ali suggested the date for the provincial election to be 28 May 2023. However, on 24 March, in a letter to the ECP, he sought a postponement of the elections to 8 October. Consequently, on 29 March, the ECP announced that they would hold the provincial elections on 8 October.
On 25 March 2023, Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, the Speaker of the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, filed a constitutional petition and a contempt of court petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of the PTI, over the violation of the Supreme Court's March 1 verdict. However, no verdict had been issued.
After the 2023 Pakistani protests, Pervez Khattak, the Chief Minister of the province from 2013 to 2018, was accused of inciting other PTI members to leave the party. Due to this, his basic party membership was terminated on 12 July 2023. Five days later, on 17 July, Khattak announced the formation of his new party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P) and many politicians across the province, mainly from the PTI, joined the new party. The most notable of these politicians was Chief Minister Mahmood Khan.
In July, 52 former MPAs of the PTI signed a letter to the ECP seeking a "level-playing field" and alleging that the caretaker cabinet "consists almost exclusively of nominees from parties of Pakistan Democratic Movement and their allies like PPP and ANP". A month later, the ECP asked caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan to sack ministers who were openly involved in politics. As a result, on 10 August 2023, twenty-five members of the caretaker cabinet had tendered their resignations to the Chief Minister. One day later, the Governor accepted all of their resignations.
Ban on PTI from contesting as a party On 22 December 2023, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided against letting the PTI retain its electoral symbol, arguing that the party had failed to hold intra-party elections. On 22 December, the PTI approached the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the ECP's order and hence, a single-member bench suspended the ECP's order until 9 January 2024. On 30 December 2023, the ECP filed a review application within the PHC, and days later, a two-member bench withdrew the suspension order as it heard the case. However, on 10 January 2024, the two-member bench had declared the ECP's order to be "illegal, without any lawful authority, and of no legal effect. On 11 January, the ECP challenged this ruling in the Supreme Court, and on 13 January, a three-member bench ruled in favor of the ECP and stripped the PTI of its electoral symbol. As a consequence of this ruling, the PTI could not allot party tickets to any of its candidates. Therefore, all candidates of the party will be listed as independent candidates and each will have a different electoral symbol.
Schedule The schedule of the election was announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on 15 December 2023. The by-elections for PK-22 and PK-91 constituencies, which were postponed due to an ISIS-K assassination and an unexpected heart failure, respectively, were announced by the ECP on 14 March and took place on 21 April 2024.
Sr noPoll EventSchedule1Public Notice Issued by the Returning Officers19 December 20232Dates of filing Nomination papers with the Returning Officers by the candidates20 December 2023 to 24 December 20233Publication of names of the nominated candidates.24 December 20234Last date of scrutiny of nomination papers by the Returning Officer25 December 2023 to 30 December 20235Last date of filing appeals against decisions of the Returning Officer rejecting/accepting nomination papers.3 January 20246Last date for deciding of appeals by the Appellate Tribunal10 January 20247Publication of revised list of candidates11 January 20248Last date of withdrawal of candidate and publication of revised list of candidates12 January 20249Allotment of election symbol to contesting candidates13 January 202410Polling and preliminary vote counts8 February 202411Postponed elections in PK-22 and PK-91 constituencies21 April 202412Publication of final vote countsUnknown
Electoral system The 145 seats of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly consist of 115 general seats, whose members are elected by the first-past-the-post voting system through single-member constituencies. 26 seats are reserved for women and 8 seats are reserved for non-Muslims. The members on these seats are elected through proportional representation based on the total number of general seats secured by each political party.
Opinion polls Polling firmLast dateof pollingLinkPTIJUIFANPPML(N)PPPJIMMALeadSamplesizeUndecideds &Non-votersGallup Pakistan30 June 2023PDF69% 1%1%12%2% 0% -- 15%57%3,500N/APA18 January 2023The Provincial Assembly is dissolved and a provincial snap election is called. NA11-12 April 2022 Imran Khan is removed from office in a no-confidence motionIPOR (IRI)PDF38% 23%8%13%8% 3% --7%15%~600N/AGallup PakistanPDF32%9%4%15%6%2%1%3%17%~97028%IPOR (IRI)PDF44%17%11%11%7%3%7%27%641N/AIPOR (IRI)PDF34%8%3%12%4%3%36%22%331N/A2018 ElectionsECP32.3%New12.2%10.5%9.7%New17.1%14.9%3.3%20.4%6,255,014N/A
Results Result by party 58 9 9 5 2 2 31 IND
Results by division DivisionSeatsPTIJUI(F)PML(N)PPP PTI(P)ANPINDOthersPostponedMalakand302702001000Hazara181311000300Mardan131300000000Peshawar281912211200Kohat9710000100Bannu9520010100Dera Ismail Khan8420200000Total1158875422700
Results by district DivisionDistrictSeatsPTIJUI(F)PML(N)PPP PTI(P)ANPINDOthersPostponedMalakandUpper Chitral1100000000Lower Chitral1100000000Swat8800000000Upper Dir3300000000Lower Dir5500000000Bajaur4300001000Malakand2200000000Buner3300000000Shangla3102000000HazaraUpper Kohistan1000000100Lower Kohistan1010000000Kolai-Palas1000000100Battagram2200000000Mansehra5401000000Torghar1000000100Abbottabad4400000000Haripur3300000000MardanSwabi5500000000Mardan8800000000PeshawarCharsadda5400000100Mohmand2200000000Khyber3300000000Peshawar13512211100Nowshera5500000000KohatKohat330000000Hangu1100000000Orakzai1100000000Kurram2010000100Karak2200000000BannuBannu4220000000North Waziristan2100010000Lakki Marwat3200000100Dera Ismail KhanTank1100000000Upper South Waziristan1100000000Lower South Waziristan1100000000Dera Ismail Khan5120200000Total1158875422700
Results by constituency +DistrictConstituencyWinnerRunner UpMarginTurnout