PESHAWAR: Women in Pakistan’s northwestern Shangla district are gearing up to cast their votes as the South Asian country goes to the elections on February 8.
In 2017, Pakistan enacted the Elections Act to address women’s disenfranchisement, stipulating that for polls to be valid, at least 10% of the votes in any constituency had to be cast by women.
Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) canceled election results in Shangla district in 2018 and ordered re-polling after women’s voter turnout for the National Assembly’s NA-10 and provincial assembly’s PK-23 seats was recorded at 7.8 and 4.0% respectively, the lowest in the country, according to the Free and Fair Election Network, an election observer.
Women Gear Up for Elections in Northwest Pakistan
According to Arab News, a social activist Jameela Khan said they had tried to create awareness on the significance of women voting after the last election results were annulled. She hoped that women’s voter turnout in Shangla would be between 18-20%.
Shangla has a total population of 757,810 people of whom 465,602 are registered voters — 247,099 males and 218,503 females. After the latest demarcation of constituencies by the ECP, the district has one National Assembly seat and 3 provincial seats, one more than the previous election.
Leading candidates for in general elections for the NA-11 constituency are the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Eng. Amir Muqam, and the Awami National Party’s (ANP) Aurangzeb Khan. An independent candidate, Mohammed Alam, is also in the race.
As per media reports, political parties, candidates and political workers across the country are actively taking part in the elections. They used different forms of media to convince the potential voters.
