Pakistan - Absence of women voters in by-poll

NOT one woman, not one single woman out of 47,280 registered women voters exercised her right to vote.

The apparently hugely successful boycott by the women in Lower Dir of the by-election in the PK-95 constituency on Thursday is the most significant fact that emerged from that electoral contest.

The result itself, with the Jamaat-i-Islami candidate Izazul Mulk Afkari emerging victorious, was a foregone conclusion.

Take a look: Women remain indoors as JI wins Dir by-poll

The seat had fallen vacant after the JI emir, Sirajul Haq, was elected senator in March; he had won from the constituency in the 2013 election by a margin of 12,000 votes.

More instructive, however, is the fact that then too Lower Dir was among those areas where women did not exercise — either partly or wholly — their right of franchise which is protected by law.

On that occasion, agreements had been struck between local chapters of various political parties to bar women from casting their vote.

This time, however, the JI chief and the ANP candidate denied that any such pact had been made. Indeed, the district election commission officer said that announcements were made from mosque loudspeakers asking women to exercise their right of franchise.

There are two possible explanations for what transpired on Thursday. One, in the wake of a more robust response of late by civil society and the ECP to female-disenfranchisement pacts, retrogressive elements determined to preserve traditional male privilege by excluding females from decision-making processes are using more subtle methods than they did earlier.

Second, local chapters of political parties have done little to motivate women to exercise their right to vote, or to persuade men of the importance — not to mention legality — of women doing so. In fact, both hypotheses are interlinked, for the members of these local chapters, after all, belong to the same conservative social milieu.

Nevertheless, their parent parties, among whom the PPP and ANP flaunt their ‘progressive’ credentials partly on the basis of their support for women’s rights, cannot disavow responsibility for the craven surrender of those rights to reactionary pressure groups — whether in Lower Dir or elsewhere.

They must take a proactive stance against patriarchal traditions that make a virtue of disempowering women; it is precisely such an environment that gives sustenance to horrific crimes such as honour killing, vani/swara etc and perpetuates the disadvantages for females in health and education sectors.

The ECP must order a thorough inquiry into the total absence of women at the hustings in PK-95; a re-poll should be held if the indication of even indirect tactics to disenfranchise women is discerned.

In its draft bill on electoral reforms before election 2013, the ECP had included the requirement for re-polling at polling stations with less than 10pc turnout of registered women voters.

Parliament should demonstrate real commitment to half the population of Pakistan by enacting legislation along these lines.