Women barred from voting in Shangla by-polls

In the two villages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district, women residents were deprived of suffrage in the by-polls on Wednesday.

The 43 seats across the province were vacant as the elected councillors had opted for government jobs.

Sources informed a local media publication that local elders and the candidates for two village councils, Koz Kana and Sangrai, had unanimously barred women from exercising their right to cast votes.

The 14 polling stations of the two villages had witnessed no women voters at the time of voting.

District Election Officer (DEO) Sardar Saidur Rehman told a local news publication that the ban was imposed by locals according to their culture. The move came in defiance of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s efforts of raising awareness among locals regarding women’s suffrage.

The DEO said 35 people, including women, were deployed as staff at polling stations on Wednesday. 60 police personnel were also deployed at each station for security purposes.

When asked about the ban on female voters, one of the candidates contesting the by-election said that women were forbidden to vote according to an “old tradition.” The motivation behind this ban also coincided with the ECPs’ plan of combining male and female polling stations, he said.

Total registered voters in Koz Kana numbered 6,643. Among them, 3,652 were male and 2,991 female.

Similarly, 1,507 voters are registered in Sangrai, of which 862 were male and 705 were female.

Voting at men’s polling stations was conducted smoothly and would end at 5 pm on Wednesday.