PESHAWAR, Aug 25: Candidates backed by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Jamaat-i-Islami and Awami National Party entered into agreements in various union councils of Swat district to bar women from polling.

Barring the candidates of Pakistan People’s Party, all others allied to the mainstream political parties in the Islampura union council of Swat entered into such an accord.

In some union councils, they even took pledge upon the Holy Quran not to allow women’s polling, Uzma Mehboob, a member of election monitoring team of the Aurat Foundation told Dawn on phone from Swat.

The female polling staff kept waiting at polling stations in various union councils but no woman voter turned up till mid-noon, Ms Mehboob claimed.

Women voters’ turnout was comparatively good in tehsil Saidu Sharif (Mingora town).

However, women voters did not show up in the Mutta, Islampura, Aman Kote, Barabanda (Kabal) and Shahdarra Naway Kilay union councils of district Swat.

Voting by women was banned in these union councils as part of the agreement, Ms Mehboob claimed.

“Some local leaders and candidates backed by political parties even swore on the Holy Quran not to allow women’s polling in Aman Kote. The locals said that one such agreement was reached at 2pm last night,” she said.

In Shahdara Naway Kilay union council there were three polling stations with only male polling staff. No women polling took place there.

In Malakand, women’s polling was not allowed in any of the three union councils of Batkhela under a similar agreement. There was partial women polling in Sakha Kote and Dargai and Thana, the election monitoring team on a visit to these areas said.

Haleem Asad from Lower Dir adds: Only one Christian woman cast her vote in Taimergara, the district headquarters of Lower Dir, in the second phase of LG elections held on Thursday.

Some 161 women candidates were contesting elections on seats reserved for Muslim women, peasant/workers women seats in some 37 union councils of district Lower Dir.

Women voters in Nawa Kilay, an area which borders with Bajaur agency, turned up at the polling station but they were not allowed to cast vote.

There was no women polling in other parts of the Lower Dir, a conservative district where the women vote ban was much highlighted in the media.

Adviser to the prime minister Nilofar Bakhtiar had visited the district to help women candidates file their nomination papers as the local leadership of various political parties had sealed agreements to prevent women from voting and running for election.

There was also no women’s polling in the Upper Dir district which has 28 union councils. Some 72 women were contesting for seats reserved for Muslim women and 33 women for peasant/workers women seats there.