Activists demand re-polling in Lower Dir

Say JI, ANP, DC mutually agreed at jirga to bar women from voting.

PESHAWAR: NGOs have demanded a re-election in PK-95, Lower Dir-II where women were not allowed to cast votes in the by-polls on May 7. Activists accused Jamaat-e-Islami, Awami National Party and the DC of mutually deciding to block women’s suffrage at jirgas prior to the by-polls.

Addressing a joint press conference at Peshawar Press Club (PPC) on Wednesday, representatives of Aurat Foundation, South Asia Partnership (SAP) and Strengthening Participatory Organizations (SPO) said they would move the court to declare the elections null and void if the constituency is not re-polled.

Aurat Foundation K-P Resident Director Shabina Ayaz said, “Women were not allowed to vote, and this was made clear through sermons and jirgas.” Ayaz added 47,000 females were not allowed to vote after JI and ANP decided to deny them their voting rights.

She said the jirga was attended by Lower Dir DC Sohail Khan, Returning Officer Muhammad Irshad and other officials. JI’s Saeed Baacha and ANP’s Bakht Baider entered into a verbal agreement to this effect at the jirga, claimed Ayaz.

According to Ayaz, JI Gulludheri’s leader Qari Israr and Hizbul Mujahideen’s Qari Mukhtar announced at several Friday sermons that women will not vote. She said, “JI’s stick-wielding workers were deputed outside polling stations to stop women.”

She added that during 2013 general elections, only one woman cast her vote out of a 27,000 registered female voters in the area. “Article 34 of the Constitution talks about bringing women to the mainstream but what happens in reality is diametrically opposed to its gist.”

Ayaz demanded the ECP declare the by-polls null and void and announce re-elections. “Elections rules should be amended to effect that elections will be declared illegal if less than 10% of the constituency’s women vote.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2015.