KARACHI: The Sindh Commission on the Status of Women (SCSW) has commended “efforts and courage” of scores of female candidates in Sindh who contested the recently held general elections as independent candidates or from political parties, though few of them returned to the assemblies.

In a brief report issued by the commission, its chairperson Nuzhat Shirin said some 44 female candidates contested for the National Assembly seats in Sindh and four of them succeeded.

Besides, an encouraging 102 female candidates contested for Sindh’s provincial legislature on general seats and two of them returned to the house.

“The commission would like to especially commend the efforts of the nine female candidates from minority communities in Sindh who contested the elections on general seats, claiming their constitutional right to compete for the office,” the report quoted its chairperson as saying.

“These figures are heartening for the political participation of women in Sindh and show the interest and the will of women to become a part of the political process in our province,” she added.

According to the report, the commission hoped that women in Sindh would continue to strive for women’s political participation.

“The commission requests all female candidates to make efforts to encourage women take action to increase voter education and encourage increased participation of women in political arenas.”

The report made several observations on the participation of women in the general elections. It said the efforts made by women contestants were significant; they went door to door, spread awareness of women’s rights and were well aware of the issues being faced in their communities.

“However,” it added, “their efforts would have been more fruitful with effective campaigning strategies.”

It said independent candidates in particular should strengthen their campaigns.

“This can be done by either joining a political party and making use of the party’s financial and human resources or through political training and programmes which could train them to effectively campaign and gain more votes.”

It said it was the responsibility of a party to ensure that its women candidates received its full support in the electoral process.

‘Parties’ support missing’

“This support from parties for women candidates was missing in 2018 elections. The women were contesting from constituencies they were not popular in, which resulted in insufficient votes.”

It asked political parties to strengthen their women’s wings and make them more organised and active.

“It appeared as if the parties nominated women candidates just to fulfil the five per cent quota. The Election Commission of Pakistan must revisit the legislation regarding 5pc women quota and take action to ensure that it is not adhered [to] just for the sake of saving face; and that female candidates are taken as seriously as male candidates.”

The SCSW said the ECP needed to appoint female presiding officers in the next elections for female polling stations. Besides, “the ECP [should] give some financial leeway to independent candidates as they find it very difficult to pay for the nomination papers fee as well as other campaign expenses which deter women from participating in elections as candidates”.

It asked female candidates to receive electoral education.

“If women in politics learn how to campaign effectively, it will lead to a flourishing democratic process. The commission encourages independent candidates who contested in elections to continue their efforts and not get disheartened from the election results.”

The commission observed there was a lack of voter education; the female polling agents were not trained properly to be able to facilitate the voting process for women.

Female voter turnout

It said the female voter turnout was overwhelming in the recent elections.

“Women went out to vote very enthusiastically, however, lack of education on voting protocols hindered the voting process for them.”

The SCSW urged all those women who contested from various parties to make issues of women and women development a priority in their parties’ agendas.

“We hope that they will work to strengthen the government and civil society institutions which are already working for women’s rights. We hope the successful women candidates will lobby such institutions in the parliament.”

It said the institutions such as the SCSW would benefit from both the financial and human resource support those women could provide.

“Successful women candidates should now make efforts to bring women’s issues to the surface and advocate for women’s issues.”

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2018