Half the population is not voting

Low voter registration, unfavorable polling station atmosphere and obstacles in regulatory framework are major issues hampering women’s participation in the elections.
Despite lofty claims, the authorities take no steps to encourage women’s political participation.
“Women’s political participation can have a profound impact on society, legislation and politics”,said Samina Nazir of the Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA).
She said that limited financial autonomy, family responsibilities and partial access to political networks are major hurdles for Pakistani women.
She also said that a lack of leadership-oriented training and education for women obstructed their political participation.
Women are nearly 50 % of the population but only 43.5 % are registered voters. The situation is worse in rural Pakistan, where they do not even know how to vote.
A UNDP official Nighat Siddique admitted that Pakistani women do not recognize their vote’s importance.
She underlined the need for enhancing women participation’s by increasing female elections staff for 2013.
Women’s participation in the elections must be ensured at all cost, she asserted.
Women’s political participation is also hampered by the lack of pre-requisite documentation for Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs)
“The irony is that rural women know nothing about voter registration processes or the importance of registering as voters”, she said.
She also cited transportation issues as a major hurdle for rural women
“They depend on their male counterparts to take them to the polling station, so if they are not available, the women cannot go” she added.
“Currently, there are at least 7.3 million fewer female registered voters than males according to the Final Electoral Rolls (FER) 2012,” said Siddique.
“A quota of at least 50 percent women as registered voters should be obligatory for elections in any constituency,” she maintained.