PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded a voter turnout of 47.6% in the 1985 non-party-based general elections for its Provincial Assembly, with 2.01 million votes cast out of the 4.22 million registered voters. According to Free and Fair Election Network, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, known as the North-West Frontier Province until 2010, is the third-most populous province in Pakistan and has been significantly impacted by conflict in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

The province's electorate at the time comprised 2.56 million male voters, representing 60.6% of the registered voters, and 1.66 million female voters, making up 39.4%. This resulted in a gender gap of 0.90 million, highlighting ongoing barriers to women's civic participation. The turnout in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has consistently been lower than the national average, attributed partially to its challenging geography and periods of security threats.

In the 1985 elections, 41,200 ballots were rejected, accounting for 2.1% of the total votes polled. Historically, rejection rates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been higher than those in Punjab and Sindh, possibly due to factors like lower literacy levels and administrative challenges. Notably, gender-specific voting data was not recorded until the 2018 elections.

The electorate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has grown significantly, from 3.1 million registered voters in 1970 to 21.9 million by 2024, with a substantial increase following the merger of former FATA constituencies. Votes polled have also increased, from 1.5 million in 1970 to 8.5 million in 2024, with the highest turnout recorded at 47.8% in 1970 and the lowest at 24% in 1997.