PESHAWAR, Aug 20: The Election Commission has not received any formal complaint from any affected group about the barring of women from voting in the Aug 18 phase of local government elections.

“The commission has so far not received any report formally regarding barring of women from voting in the recently held LG elections,” EC officials said.

On Friday, the National Assembly’s standing committee on women development called upon the commission to declare results of the poll null and void in those parts of the country where women voters were stopped from voting. But the commission cannot take any legal action in this regard until it receives a formal request from the NA committee.

Unless there is a formal report about how women were prevented from casting ballots in a particular area in the Aug 18 poll, the commission cannot decide anything about the matter, EC officials said.

Less than ten days before the first phase of the elections, Chief Election Commissioner Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar had warned at a press conference in Islamabad that stern action would be taken against anyone who restricted women’s participation in the polls.

He had also said that the election results in those areas would be cancelled.

The CEC had said that anyone guilty of such an “electoral offence” would face legal action and that such a poll would be null and void.

Shabina Ayaz, the joint coordinator of the Citizen’s Campaign for Women Representation, said that so far the CCWR had only prepared the monitoring report which it had submitted to the district returning officer of Peshawar.

The CCWR has catalogued some of the problems faced by women voters and has also mentioned those areas where women were stopped from voting.

The Aurat Foundation, Lahore wing, has also been submitted copies of the written agreements that barred women from voting in different areas.

The organisation running the campaign has so far discussed the issue with the EC and contacted the government, but it will only map out a future plan of action after the second phase of the poll.

“If the problem of barring of women continues, we will adopt a legal course,” said Ms Ayaz.