Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A Female National Identity Card and Voter Registration Campaign is in progress in 79 districts of the country to bridge the gap between male and female voters.

As part of its measures to ensure efficient registration of women voters, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) launched and initiative last month, which will target 880,000 women, mobilize and facilitate them to centres of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) for acquisition of Computerized National Identity Cards (CNlCs). Sources at Parliamentary Affairs Division on Friday said that the number of women registered as voters is far less than men voters.

All the citizens having CNICs are registered as voters. Therefore, the gap between men and women voters is due to the gap in Civil Registration. Voter registration is directly linked with issuance of CNICs. The sources said as the gap between men and women is reduced with improvement in civil registration, the same shall be reflected in voter registration.

The sources said that the ECP had declared elections of a provincial constituency PK-95 Lower Dir (KP) null and void on the grounds that no women voters came out to vote in said constituency. The decision was set aside by the KP High Court and the ECP was asked to notify the returned candidate. However, the ECP challenged the decision of KP High Court in Supreme Court and the matter is still pending.

Furthermore, the ECP’s stance has also been endorsed in the 2017 Election Act by inclusion of law on the issue. Highlighting the other initiatives, the sources said the ECP has introduced a column in Form-XlV, which is the Statement of the Court (which is prepared by the Presiding Officer at close of the poll) requiring information on the number of women voters who cast their votes at each polling station, enabling ECP to ascertain the number of women who exercise their right of vote across the country.

The ECP has also included a module with name of “Gender and elections” in the capacity building training of ECP Officers so that a gender sensitized environment is created. Moreover, the gender affairs wing of ECP has created a “Gender and Disability Electoral Working Group (GDEW)” with the aim of mainstreaming women and other marginalized groups in to the political process. This working group will enlist support of all stakeholders and other organizations working in the field. In this regard meetings at all four provincial headquarters with all stakeholders have already been conducted. The sources said ECP has also established District Voter Education Committees at the district level which are headed by the concerned District Election Commissioners and consists of members from both the government and civil society organizations of the area.

Published in Daily Times, December 16^th 2017.