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EDITORIAL: Whilst its management of the February 8 general elections remains clouded by controversy, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) also seems to have had no qualms about allowing gender-based discrimination.

As per a recently released analysis of election data carried out by Pattan Coalition 38 — an umbrella organisation comprising several civil society organisations, labour unions, and independent activists — in quite a few polling stations of at least four Khyber Pakhtunkhwa constituencies no woman cast her vote.

A press report mentions only NA-10 (Buner) where PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan won by a landslide — a sign his party is not averse to perpetuating anti-women biases. In the 2013 elections too women in Buner were barred from voting in about 17 polling stations.

The other major political parties, including the PPP and the PML, have had a similar track record. At loggerheads in other parts of the country, they joined hands to protect and preserve entrenched hurdles to women’s political engagement, particularly in Lower Dir.

Some brave Dir women did try to break out of the barriers erected in the name of tradition, only to face fierce resistance. As a remedy, a clause was added to the Elections Act of 2017. Section 9 (1) of this law states that if the ECP is satisfied that women have been restrained from casting their votes due to an agreement, it can call for re-polling in that constituency or in affected polling stations.

Furthermore, it specifies that “if the turnout of women voters is less than 10 percent of the total votes polled in a constituency, the Commission may presume that the women voters have been prevented from voting and may declare polling at one or more polling stations or election in the whole constituency void.”

Clearly, the intent of the law was to ensure women use their right to vote without any let or hindrance. Since the total votes cast in the controversial constituencies were not less than 10 percent, the ECP could be technically right in staying re-election there, but not in interpreting use of the word ‘may’ rather than ‘must’ in the subject legislation as a discretionary power not to call re-election in polling stations where the female voter turnout was below 10 percent of the votes cast, or even zilch percent! It obviously does not matter to the electoral body if women are deprived of a basic democratic and brings into question overall legitimacy of elections.

Pattan has requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of this letdown by the ECP, and initiate an investigation into it, punishing officials involved in gross misconduct and negligence. That though is unlikely to have the desired effect considering how blatantly some of the apex court’s electoral issues-related orders have been defied. It also urged women’s rights groups, civil society organisations as well as political parties to make the issue a test case for improving electoral governance. More importantly, Parliament should revisit the Elections Act to replace the word ‘may’ with ‘must’ — a best hope for rectification.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024

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