Disenfranchised: ECP baffled by all male voting in Lower Dir

No separate record kept for men and women voters

ISLAMABAD:

The lop-sided voting pattern in the May 7 by-elections in Lower Dir has raised many eyebrows after rights activists complained that not a single woman had cast her ballot within the entire constituency.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is baffled with this negative pattern but remains clueless regarding what action should be taken due to inherent flaws in the voting system. In the prevailing system no separate record is maintained for men and women voters at any polling station once the results are compiled.

Local media and human rights activists claimed that not a single woman polled her vote in the constituency which has a total of 127,096 registered voters, including more than 47,000 women who are registered voters for the K-P Assembly seat.

Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Muhammad Sardar Raza took notice of such reports and summoned all the contesting candidates- winner and losers, the KP chief secretary and the returning officers on May 14.

They were unanimous in denying that there was any covert agreement to bar women from voting and claimed that cultural barriers might have stopped women coming out of their homes to exercise their right to vote.

The seat had fallen vacant after Jamat e Islami (JI) chief Siraj ul Haq was elected to the Senate. JI’s Aizazul Mulk won the by poll securing 19,812 votes. More than 16,000 votes were polled for runner up Bahadur Khan of the Awami National Party (ANP).

ECP officials’ privy to the May 14 hearing of the case by CEC, told The Express Tribune that politicians from the area –the contestants and top bureaucrats including the chief secretary KP and ECP’s officials who performed as district returning officer and the returning officer—expressed their ignorance about any such covenant.

However, when CEC asked the contestants if women from their families polled votes, their reply was simple no, justified on pretexts of cultural reasons.

ECP officials said the CEC has asked contestants and local ECP officials to file written affidavits by Monday (May-18).

The ECP is scheduled to take up the case again on Monday. However, ECP officials said, in the absence of credible evidence, it will be difficult for the commission to take any action.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2015.