PESHAWAR: With the Election Commission of Pakistan set to announce schedule for election in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) for 21 seats of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, a total of 2.691 million residents, including 1.617 million men and 1.074 million women, are eligible to participate in the electoral exercise.

The schedule for election for KP Assembly’s constituencies from PK-100 to PK-115 and five seats reserved for women and non-Muslims (four women and one non-Muslim) is expected to be notified by the end of April, said a news release of the commission.

The release said no changes could be made in the electoral rolls for former Fata once the ECP announces the election schedule and till that time a voter could transfer his vote to any other area or include his or her name in the electoral rolls by approaching the concerned district election office.

Schedule for PA election in region likely by month’s end

While the 16 general seats will be filled through direct elections, the five reserved seats will be filled through proportional representation of number of general seats won by a political party for which every party has to submit its priority list of candidates.

Under the Constitution (Twenty-Fifth Amendment) Act, 2018, through which the tribal districts were merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, general elections for the 21 provincial assembly seats allocated to erstwhile Fata shall be held within a year of the general elections, which were held on Jul 25, 2018.

The ECP released district-wise list of registered voters on Tuesday showing of the total 2.691 million registered voters in the erstwhile Fata, 60 percent (1.617 million) are men and the rest (1.074 million) women.

The highest numbers of 522,480 voters are registered in Bajaur tribal district including 308,104 (59 percent) men and 214,376 (41 percent) women. Khyber tribal district is having the second highest 519,290 voters, including 294,228 (57 percent) men and 225,062 (43 percent) women.

A total of 376,635 voters are registered in South Waziristan having 231,831 (62 percent) men and 144,804 (38 percent) women; 352,794 voters in Kurram tribal district including 200,621 men (57 percent) and 152,173 (43 percent) women; 294,820 voters in North Waziristan including 204,546 men (69 percent) and 90,274 (31 percent) women; 271,251 voters in Mohmand tribal district with 170,279 men (63 percent) and 100,972 women (37 percent), and 192,633 voters in Orakzai district including 108,649 men (56 percent) and 83,984 women (44 percent).

The six former FR regions are collectively having 161,992 votes including 98,894 men (61.04 percent) and 63,098 women (38.95 percent). There is an alarming disparity between male and female voters in FR Bannu as of the total 17,798 voters, 13,849 (78 percent) are men and 3,949 (22 percent) are women.

Under Section 47 of the Elections Act, 2017, if the variation in the disaggregated data of registered men and women voters is more than 10 percent in a constituency, the ECP shall take special measures to reduce such variation. Such special measures include expediting provision of CNIC to women by Nadra and their enrollment by the ECP in electoral rolls.

According to the delimitation of constituencies carried out by ECP in the former Fata, which was notified on Mar 4, the Bajaur and Khyber tribal districts are having three provincial assembly constituencies each; Mohmand, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal districts are having two constituencies each, whereas the six former Frontier Regions of Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan and Tank jointly have a seat of KP Assembly.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2019