The ECP’s September 2017 electoral rolls show that out of 97.02 million registered voters, 54.6m were men (56.27 percent) while women numbered only 42.42m (43.73 percent) and there are 12.17 million women entitled to vote, but are excluded from the political process. The ECP is tackling the biggest culprit, the compulsory national identity card, and is facilitating and fast-tracking their issuance, starting from the least–enrolled districts, in time for the 2018 elections. It is also an unfortunate fact that all mainstream political parties collaborate with local clerics and community leaders to prevent women from voting, especially in remote areas of KP and Balochistan. Parliament has moved some essential amendments in the Representation of the People’s Act 1976, such as disqualifying candidates who restrain women voters and declaring an election where the women vote is less than a certain percentage, null and void. The present system of 60 reserved seats in the Lower House should also be based on direct suffrage, as the former does not really empower, apart from being perceived as an ersatz popular mandate.

Source: Pakistan Today December 06, 2017 03:11 UTC