The November 23 bye-elections continued Pakistan's rich tradition of polling-day irregularities, but the scale was far lower than seen in recent years, most notably during the last two general elections. Unfortunately, turnout was also horribly low, with barely 23% of voters showing up, and only one constituency — PP-269 Muzaffargarh-II — of the 13 total seats up for grabs saw turnout exceed 50%.

So while the ruling PML-N won almost every seat on the night, with relatively little controversy, this was less a show of political dominance and more of a fresh set of question marks over the health of Pakistan's democracy. A Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) report on the bye-elections also highlighted some of these problems, while mentioning a few positives, including near-unanimous respe

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