PESHAWAR, Aug 22: A group of women from Sheikhan union council have demanded that the provincial election commission declare election in their union council null and void as women of the area had not been allowed to cast their votes.

Some 24 women, residents of UC Sheikhan ward 58, in a written application to the provincial EC, complained that they were stopped from voting by some miscreants in the first phase of the local body elections.

“It was our legal right to vote but we were not allowed to exercise it,” they said. Some people stopped them from casting their vote when they had gone to their polling station, they said.

They demanded that the provincial EC conduct re-polling in the Sheikhan union council. “Women voters should be provided proper security so that they could cast their votes.”

They demanded that the election in their UC be cancelled. They complained that women were stopped from polling their votes under outdated customs. They urged the EC to announce a date for the re-polling.

They vowed to continue their protest until re-polling was held and they were given their right of franchise.

The issue had also been highlighted in the media before the polls and the elders of the UC had said that they had not entered into any agreement to disenfranchise women. However, no women voting took place in the area. The polling staff kept waiting for women voters but none turned up.—Bureau Report