It is common practice in Khyber-Pakthunkhwa (K-P) to exclude women from voting in elections, usually through compromises and accords between political parties’ representatives in the region as well as family members.
Serious efforts, however, are finally being made to address this illegal disenfranchisement, according to a high-ranking official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The official told The Express Tribune that after six consultative meetings with stakeholders including civil society members, political parties, UN agencies, media representatives, law enforcement agencies and legal experts, a revised version of an electoral reforms package has been forwarded to the law ministry. The package proposes changes to election laws for the upcoming general elections, and will soon be considered in parliament.
The official said: “The Election Commission has strongly recommended that it should be empowered to overtly deal with the agreement restraining women from casting their votes and should be more powerful [given power] to declare a polling station’s results null and void where local political parties are entering into such an agreement, or where less than 10% of women have voted. [There should also be a] requirement for presiding officers to state the turnout of male and female voters separately and independently.”
Chief Operating Officer of the NGO Aurat Foundation, Naeem Mirza, said that the demand for electoral reforms to address restricted women’s suffrage is not new. Female disenfranchisement, consolidated by disallowing women to cast votes through tactical compromises conceived by political parties or individual candidates, is a blatant violation of rights, he added. According to Mirza, political will is necessary to tackle the issue along with the action taken by ECP, political parties and domestic observer groups.
The NGO representative added that the federal and provincial governments also need to share the responsibility of addressing existing loopholes in the process of legislation and its implementation.
Legal expert Jalil Mumtaz was of the view that a number of measures could protect a woman’s right to vote.
According to a detailed report compiled by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), a number of positive suggestions for legislative proposals addressing women’s exclusion were made by the ECP in 2008 to Senate’s Standing Committee on Human Rights as well, but these did not result in any useful legislative action.
A study carried out by Democracy International Reporting, highlights various cases in Pakistan in which hardly any women have participated as voters. On 29 January 2011 in Shangla, K-P, more than 59,000 women voters were not allowed to vote out of a total of 59,177 registered female voters.
The ECP concluded that 98 votes had been cast in female polling stations, but others stated that several of these ballots were in fact cast by men in the name of women.
(Read: A vote for women)
Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2012.
COMMENTS (7)
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@Saad Shibli Asc:
Only uneducated & dependent women remain under pressure of brother father husband or boss!!! Only educated and independent women should have right to vote..... cheers
Also, include in the ballot paper the option of "none of the above" where the voters can say they dont like any of the candidates. If this option scores the highest, all the competing candidates should be disquilified to compete again and the cost of the elections should be recovered from them.
Women rihgt of vote should cancel. 99% women vote are under pressure of brother father husband or boss. Therefore vote casting right should be given to the person are paying any type of revenue and can walked independeny. Candidate should not less then 40 years and voter should not less then 25 years. Every kind of meeting in any shape should not allow. Entry in electrol roll as mention in national identity card. If winner not obtained minimum 35% of registered vote then repolling amongs 1st two candidate should managed. Fine 30% of total expences to every those candidate who could notget 10% of total casting votes. This will give the some real representation. If any poltical prty could not get 10% of to registered vote then that party should not allwo to praticipate in oming general election. Saad Shibli Asc.
It is too less. In fact it should be mandatory for all constituencies in our country to vote at least 50% as a whole. If the contestants are found not allowing women to vote less than 20% then the election result should be considered null and void. Women should be allowed to vote and the coming elections should be a test case. Enough from Macho's men in our system..
People of KP treat their women like cattle, they deserve the stone age life that they live
To give support to elected govt let us make voting mandatory. That way there would be no excuse for the opposition parties to oppose each and every move of the govt and de-legitimize it. This would also protect the democracy from the army/judiciary blackmail.