Female voter turnout

Letter November 21, 2017
Elections Act of 2017 is an admirable move to declare any local and provincial government election void

KARACHI: The Elections Act of 2017 is an admirable move to declare any local and provincial government election void if the women voters’ turnout is below the set limit. Previously, the Representation of the People Amendment Bill 2016 consisted of the legislation to conduct polls again in a constituency where women voter turnout is below 10 per cent. Sections of the legislation also imply the awarding of the party tickets to women candidates and that the party leadership shall not discriminate against either of the gender. The said law and its implementation might be only partly effective in dealing with the issue as in rural and tribal areas there is little of  women’s political and social engagement, so there’s no effective mechanism to ensure that women are not forcibly barred or stopped from voting.

Many families in tribal areas would not be subscribing to the idea of having women candidates and women voters in their constituencies. Therefore, the voter turnout is likely to remain low, as the legislation does not put in place a strategy to check for the reasons of a low voter turnout. Further, the courts and the law can only take action against the local authorities or the tribal leaders and not individual members of families. They can only do that when the female voter decides to move court against being coerced into not voting, which is another unlikely and unexpected action in rural and tribal regions of the country.

Ali Javed

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2017.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.