Analyzing 2018 General Election in Pakistan: (A Study of Voter Behavior and Electoral Outcomes)

Abstract

Literature on elections based on ethnic voting of regional political parties and theory of clientilistism based on Patron-client approach in Pakistan’s electoral system is very scarcely present although ANP as Pakhtun representative party contested various elections but detailed data has not been collected. This paper will elaborate the concept of both these theories and will explore the pros and cons both for ANP and the electorate of KP. ANP’s vote bank lies mostly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for which different constituencies (national and provincial) of three regions (Central, Northern and Southern) of KP were taken randomly in 2018 elections for which Scientific method was incorporated to the study to compare the results of ANP in last general election of 2018 and the results were comparatively analyzed on the basis of ethnicity, personality, hereditary, military, terror, floating voters, religion, media and party structure as the dynamics which led the party’s (ANP) vote bank towards downfall as compare to PTI in KP region. The depressed socio-economic conditions and politics of kinship and ethno-national feelings inversely impacted the electoral politics of ANP and so voters opted for other options in elections of 2013 and 2018 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa falsifying the truth about the dynamic feature of the voting behavior of the province as ANP was twicely ousted and PTI with the slogan of ‘change’ and ‘Naya Pakistan’ became victorious.