Women’s Voting Struggles Persist

Faisal Saleem

Khanewal: While the world is undergoing significant reforms to ensure women’s maximum participation in socio-economic sectors based on their population share, women in Pakistan—who comprise an estimated 49 percent of the population—continue to struggle for their basic right to vote.

Many are barred from voting or lack awareness of the significance of their vote. This has led to consistently low turnout among women in general elections, raising concerns about their political representation and participation in shaping the country’s future.

According to FAFEN, approximately 60.6 million voters participated in Pakistan’s 12th general election held in February 2024. This represents an increase of about 6 million votes compared to the 2018 elections, although the total number of registered voters grew from 106 million to 128 million.

Consequently, the voter turnout ratio decreased from 52 percent to 47 percent.

Gallup Pakistan reports that out of the 58.9 million female voters, only 41.6 percent cast their votes, marking a 5 percent decline from the 2018 general elections. Despite a significant increase in the number of female voters by 12.8 million since 2018, the turnout among women remains a concern, the report adds.

Bismillah Irum, a former member of the District Council Khanewal and president of the non-governmental organization Roshan Rahain, attributes the decline in female voter turnout to delays in transferring votes to their respective constituencies.

Irum highlights that a lack of cooperation between patriarchal societal structures and institutional processes contributes to these delays, preventing women’s votes from being transferred in a timely manner.

Kainat, a 27-year-old resident of Christian Colony Khanewal, shares her frustration with the voting process. She was eager to cast her vote, but just before the 2022 by-elections, she discovered that her vote was still registered in the Chichawatani constituency.

As a result, she was unable to vote. Her husband had to visit the District Election Commission multiple times to ensure her vote was transferred to Khanewal before the by-elections. Kainat believes that improving the efficiency of ECP on staff and streamlining the vote transfer process could help prevent such issues in the future.

ID Card Challenges

Based on her experience in political activities, Irum highlights several issues with the voter registration process for women, particularly in conservative families.

She notes that ID cards are often not issued to girls in such families, and after marriage, families may delay obtaining ID cards until their children are born. When a woman’s ID card is first issued, her vote is automatically registered but does not transfer to her new constituency after marriage.

Read More: https://thepenpk.com/womens-political-exclusion-persists-in-punjabs-moharipur/

If an ID card is obtained post-marriage, the woman’s vote remains registered in her in-laws’ constituency in the event of a divorce. Furthermore, if the woman remarries, her previous divorce and second marriage may not be recorded, leaving her voter registration unchanged based on her initial record. This creates complications and discrepancies in the voting system for women, reflecting broader issues within the registration process.

In such circumstances, many women do not cast their votes in the constituency where they reside after divorce or where their in-laws are settled. Some women are hesitant to update their identity status post-divorce, viewing it as a low priority.

Additionally, a prevalent attitude among many men is that women over 50 should not be involved in voting practices. This combined reluctance and gender bias contribute to the low voter turnout among women.

Migration Vote Challenges

Another significant factor contributing to low female voter turnout is family migration for livelihood. When a family moves from one city to another, men typically update their address and transfer their vote accordingly. However, women often do not take similar steps or prioritize this issue. Many assume that if the head of the household’s vote is transferred, the entire family’s vote will be updated automatically.

Yet, each individual’s social identity—whether married, widowed, divorced, or unmarried—requires separate status updates with NADRA to ensure accurate voter registration. This oversight further complicates women’s participation in elections.

Challenges for Housewives 

Bismillah Irum has highlighted significant barriers faced by housewives in accessing timely information about The ECP facilities and initiatives. She argues that housewives often require the assistance of men for legal tasks, such as obtaining identity cards or managing vote transfers, which hampers their political participation.

Irum points out that in Khanewal, display centers for election information were established in boys’ schools and that there is a lack of female staff in the election commission offices, making it difficult for women to engage with these services. She urges policymakers to address these issues by improving institutional accessibility to boost female involvement in the political process.

Voter Discrepancies in Data

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has reported that there are over 128 million registered voters for the 2024 elections, with 69.5 million male voters and 59.5 million female voters.

This indicates a significant discrepancy, as the current population of Pakistan is 224.5 million, with women constituting 49 percent of the population. The voter registration data shows a gender gap of 10 million, raising concerns about the reasons behind this disparity and the impact of vote transfers on voter registration.

Election officials, including the ECP spokesperson for Khanewal and the Provincial ECP, have noted that no formal record of vote transfers for women or other voters is currently compiled.

Read More: https://thepenpk.com/punjabs-shanti-nagars-political-odyssey/

To address these issues, the ECP has established district voter education committees across the country, which held 308 sessions from 2021 to 2023 to focus on voter registration, transfer, data correction, and improving voter turnout.

Additionally, over 26,000 training sessions were conducted for polling and security staff to create a more inclusive voting environment for women and disabled persons. This effort has led to a reduction in the gender gap in the voter list from 12 percent to 8 percent for the 2024 elections.

However, issues persist, with some votes, including those of elderly women, being transferred to incorrect constituencies. The ECP has introduced a facility to check polling station information by sending an ID card number to 8300 and has conducted door-to-door campaigns and set up election display centers to assist with vote transfers.

Despite these efforts, many voters, including women, are not utilizing these facilities and continue to face challenges on election day.

Reforming Vote Access

Bismillah Irum has called for reforms to improve female participation in the political process, emphasizing the need for gender equality as outlined in Goal 5 of the Millennium Development Goals.

Despite Pakistan’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1996, which includes a commitment to eliminating discrimination against women in political and public life, significant barriers remain.

The women rights activist urges political parties to legislate and create a practical code of conduct to simplify women’s voter registration and vote transfer processes. She argues that without these changes, women face undue difficulties in registering and transferring their votes, unlike their male counterparts.

To address these challenges, Irum suggests that political parties and government institutions should streamline the vote transfer process by placing representatives of the Election Commission in Union Council offices. This would facilitate prompt vote transfer and data correction, aiming to balance the voting ratio and enhance female participation in elections.