ISLAMABAD: Days after it vowed to eliminate the gender gap among voters by the next general elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been accused of ignoring a key stipulation — inserted in the Elections Act 2017 to protect the rights of women voters — while tabulating the results of the February 2024 general elections.

An analysis of election data carried out by Pattan-Coalition 38 — an umbrella organisation of several civil society organisations, labour unions, and intellectuals — has revealed that at least four constituencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa saw zero turnout of women voters across several polling stations.

This includes NA-10 (Buner), which PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan won by a landslide, and its associated provincial assembly constituencies of PK-26, PK-27 and PK-28.

Buner is no stranger to such controversy; in the 2013 general elections, the Aurat Foundation found that women were barred from voting in at least 17 union councils.

However, in most cases, it seems that the turnout of women in the constituency as a whole has remained above the 10 per cent threshold, albeit barely, req­uired for the ECP to declare the polling process void.

Section 9(1) of the Elections Act, which deals with the ECP’s power to declare a poll void, states that if the commission is satisfied that women have been restrained from casting their votes due to an agreement, it can call for a re-election in that constituency, or order re-polling in certain polling stations.

An explanation appended to the same section says: “If the turnout of women voters is less than 10 per cent of the total votes polled in a constituency, the Commission may presume that the women voters have been restrained through an agreement from casting their votes and may declare, polling at one or more polling stations or election in the whole constituency, void.”

When contacted, an ECP official told Dawn that re-polling in case of less than 10pc votes of women was not a mandatory requirement, as the clause contained the word “may”, leaving the matter at the commission’s discretion. However, in its report, Pattan-Coaliton 38 pointed out that the results of eight polling stations in NA-10 were unavailable on ECP website.

It regretted that despite a huge gap in the number of women voters, the ECP declared the final consolidated results of the constituencies without holding legally required inquiry and re-polling.

In the wake of the Working Women’s Day celebrations, the pledge of the CEC “to eliminate the gender gap among voters by the next general election” therefore seems to be hollow, it said.

The case of women’s participation in voting was further examined in terms of female voters’ turnout from two angles, (a) based on total polled votes and (b) in relation to total registered votes. In both cases, results reveal extremely disturbing trends.

For instance, in terms of female registered voters’ turnout, at 100 or 33 per cent of female and combined polling stations was either zero or less than 10 per cent. However, an independent analysis of the constituency-wise data shows that the women’s turnout in each constituency as a whole remained above the 10pc mark, vindicating the ECP’s stance to some extent.

However, Pattan maintained that the absence of female voters at such a large scale is highly likely to be the result of enforced restraints on women to cast their votes and cannot be considered an outcome of voluntary choices.

It urged the chief justice of Pakistan to take notice of the failure of the ECP in this regard, initiate an investigation and punish the officials responsible for this gross misconduct and negligence. “We also appeal to women’s rights groups, civil society organisations and political parties to make it a test case for improving electoral governance in Pakistan.”

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2024