BANNU: Setting up of polling stations at unsuitable locations and alleged plans by influential people not to allow women to cast vote would affect their turnout in Bannu and the adjoining North Waziristan tribal district on the polling day on July 25, candidates complained.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Pakistan Peoples Party candidate on NA-35 and PK-88 Yasmeen Safdar alleged that candidates of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had planned to rig elections in Bannu.

She said rival candidates were planning to stop women from casting vote in several union councils, including Kalakhel and Ismail Khani. She said women were being threatened not to visit polling stations on the polling day.

Candidates complain influential people plan to bar women from vote

Ms Safdar further alleged that PTI and MMA candidates were hand in glove to keep women disenfranchised. She said PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had been informed about the matter, pointing out that influential people had stopped women from casting votes in several areas of the district in previous general elections.

The PPP candidate said under the Elections Act, 2017, the Election Commission of Pakistan had been empowered to nullify results in the constituencies where the women turnout was equal to or less than 10 per cent. She demanded of the ECP to take notice of the situation and initiate legal action against the elements trying to deprive women of their fundamental right.

In a separate press conference, independent candidate from North Waziristan, Mohsin Dawar Advocate, also expressed reservations over location of women polling stations in the region.

He said the ECP was violating its own laws by setting up polling stations for women at distant places, and added he would file a petition in the Peshawar High Court in that regard.

Mr Dawar said women in Chothai, Banda, Hamzoni, Ali Khel and other areas would have to travel a distance of 20 to 25 kilometres to reach polling stations established inside the cantonment in Miramshah. He said the ECP was supposed to open polling stations for women at a close distance to encourage them to cast votes.

He said there was enthusiasm among women of North Waziristan to take part in the electoral process, but they were deliberately being discouraged from visiting polling stations. He said the issue had been brought to the notice of ECP and other relevant quarters. He also said the polling staff did not get proper training to use result transaction system, therefore the staff would transfer results according to the old system which would be unacceptable to them.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2018