Drive launched to register women voters in MDs

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Provincial Election Commission has launched a special drive to register votes of females and deprived segments of society in the tribal districts in order to bridge the gender gap in electoral rolls.

Addressing the launching ceremony of the drive at a local hotel Provincial Election Commissioner (PEC) Javed Khan said that the campaign has been launched in cooperation with Election Commission (EC), International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and National Database Registration Authority (Nadra).

He maintained that the role of education department, local government, social welfare and health department was also imperative in this regard.

The election commissioner said that the registration of female voters and other deprived segments of society was a big step forward and ECP has set a goal of registering 25,000 female voters which hopefully will be achieved.

He urged political parties, civil society, and media to play their imperative role in creating awareness and making the campaign successful, adding that ECP was committed to ensuring participation of all segments of society in the electoral process.

All the offices of ECP and polling stations would be made accessible for persons with disabilities so that they could also cast their vote in the elections, he observed.

Appreciating the role of Nadra, civil society and officials of ECP, he said that due to their effective role the gap between registered male and female voters shrunk to 10 per cent and efforts would be made to bridge this gap further. The commissioner said the final electoral lists would be published in August while preparations are in full swing to hold general elections on time.

Speaking on the occasion Provincial Ombudsperson Rakhshanda Naz said that the ombudsman was actively working to protect women from any kind of harassment at workplaces, adding that all public departments including PEC and Nadra were extending cooperation.

Assistant Director Nadra Zahidur Rehman assured full support to the ECP in registration of the female voters. Public Relations Officer (PRO) PEC Sohail Ahmed said that the election commission in cooperation with Nadra and partner organizations started a mobile registration drive in 2017 to provide CNIC to females at their doorstep.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2022.