Below 10%: PTI candidate to challenge ECP’s decision for re-polling in Shangla
Contends re-polling should only be held on women polling stations
PHOTO: AFP
PESHAWAR:
A candidate, who had won his constituency per unofficial results before the notification of the result in the constituency was halted by the apex poll body owing to low turnout of women, stated on Friday that he would challenge the poll body’s decision in court.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PT) candidate Shoukat Yousafzai had secured 17,399 votes in PK-23 Shangla-I during the July 25 polls.
However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) noted that only 3,505 women of the 86,698 registered in the constituency, had turned out to vote on polling day. Moreover, this only constituted five per cent of the 69,827 votes polled, far below the 10 per cent required.
After withholding the notification for the returned candidate from the constituency earlier in the week, the ECP on Friday announced that there will be re-polling in PK-23 Shangla following a hearing by a five-member bench headed by the chief election commissioner.
The decision left Yousafzai displeased.
“If they [ECP] really wants to tell the West that they are really concerned with female voters, the re-polling should have been announced on only female polling stations and not the entire process,” Yousafzai told The Express Tribune, adding, “There is no need to conduct the entire exercise again since no one forced female voters not to vote.”
He contended that conducting elections was a massive task and it was not possible for candidates to spend money for multiple election campaigns.“Will they give us money for transportation, meals, advertisements and other important things,” an irate Yousafzai asked. “Not even a single candidate barred women from casting their vote and it was their [women’s] decision to not show up at the polling stations,” he said. “I am not responsible if female voters refused to vote since we never stopped them.”
Of the 13 candidates in the running for the seat, none of them was a woman.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2018.
A candidate, who had won his constituency per unofficial results before the notification of the result in the constituency was halted by the apex poll body owing to low turnout of women, stated on Friday that he would challenge the poll body’s decision in court.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PT) candidate Shoukat Yousafzai had secured 17,399 votes in PK-23 Shangla-I during the July 25 polls.
However, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) noted that only 3,505 women of the 86,698 registered in the constituency, had turned out to vote on polling day. Moreover, this only constituted five per cent of the 69,827 votes polled, far below the 10 per cent required.
After withholding the notification for the returned candidate from the constituency earlier in the week, the ECP on Friday announced that there will be re-polling in PK-23 Shangla following a hearing by a five-member bench headed by the chief election commissioner.
The decision left Yousafzai displeased.
“If they [ECP] really wants to tell the West that they are really concerned with female voters, the re-polling should have been announced on only female polling stations and not the entire process,” Yousafzai told The Express Tribune, adding, “There is no need to conduct the entire exercise again since no one forced female voters not to vote.”
He contended that conducting elections was a massive task and it was not possible for candidates to spend money for multiple election campaigns.“Will they give us money for transportation, meals, advertisements and other important things,” an irate Yousafzai asked. “Not even a single candidate barred women from casting their vote and it was their [women’s] decision to not show up at the polling stations,” he said. “I am not responsible if female voters refused to vote since we never stopped them.”
Of the 13 candidates in the running for the seat, none of them was a woman.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2018.