KHAR/TIMERGARA: After the Election Commission of Pakistan has declared mandatory 10 per cent women vote in a constituency for the election to be valid, the poll candidates in Bajaur tribal district have been making all-out efforts to bring maximum women to the polling stations on Wednesday.

The political parties’ workers and candidates, including independents, told Dawn here on Monday that women made over 40 per cent of the total voters in Bajaur and their participation in the poll process was a must.

According to the candidates, the people’s concept regarding women voting in the region had changed owing to their efforts. They said almost every household was ready to allow women to vote in the election.

Nizamuddin Khan, son of Shahabuddin Khan, who is contesting polls as independent from NA-41, said they were not only in favour of women voting but also planned to bring maximum number of women to the polling stations.

Candidates making efforts to get maximum women to polling stations

Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami local leaders on Monday claimed that the JI was the only party in the district that had arranged separate meetings and conventions for women aimed to convince them to cast vote in the July 25 election.

Hayatullah Khan, a spokesman of JI local chapter, told Dawn that his party had arranged several conventions for women in different areas of the region. Besides, he said a number of training workshops had also been arranged for women where they were imparted the basic technique of how to cast vote. He said the training workshops were conducted under the supervision of female trainers which were also attended by women polling agents. He said the JI would make all-out efforts to get the women to the polling stations.

Meanwhile, the ECP has installed security cameras at the most sensitive polling stations across the Bajaur tribal district.

Talking to Dawn on Monday, assistant election commissioner, Bajaur Parvez Iqbal said five CCTV cameras had been installed at each of the 24 polling stations which had been declared the most sensitive to thwart any unpleasant incident on the polling day.

Meanwhile, high turnout of women voters is expected in Lower Dir in the Wednesday’s general elections, according to political analysts and rights’ activists. Talking to Dawn on Monday, they hoped that the women in the area would come out of their houses to exercise their right to vote for the first time in the general elections. According to the ECP record, in 2013 general election only 231 women out of 206,566 in the then NA-34 (now NA-6 and NA-7) had cast their ballots.

The ECP has set up 115 separate and 311 combined polling stations in the district for the upcoming election.

However, activists Ibrash Pasha, Umar Zada and Shad Begum have been objecting to the setting up of the combined polling stations, saying it would create hindrances for women voters to visit stations and cast vote there. However, they hoped that majority of women in the district would come out of their homes this time around.

Almost all the political parties in Dir have mobilised their women wings and some of them have also trained their female members as polling agents to perform at the polling stations on the polling day.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2018