The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is likely to revoke polls and their results in two National Assembly constituencies as the turnout of female voters was less than 10 per cent.
According to a local media report, the ECP secretariat is “recommending that the polls in NA-10 (Shangla) and NA-48 (North Waziristan) is declared void”.
Days before the Election Day, the ECP passed the 10 per cent law to ensure the participation of women on polling day.
In NA-10 (Shangla) the total number of registered voters is 374,343. Out of the 212,294 male voters, 115,639 (54 pc) cast their votes while only 12,663 women from the total registered 162,049 female voters turned up to vote. The total votes cast in the constituency was 128,302 and the 12,663 female votes were less than 10pc of the total votes.
Similarly, in NA-48 (Tribal Area) the total number of registered voters was 274,205. Out of the 196,668 male voters, 57,600 (29.28 pc) and out of a total 77,537 female voters just 6,364 (8.19 pc) turned up to vote. Women voters fell short of just 32 votes to attain the 10pc share in the total polled votes.
Having said that, there were other constituencies where the turnout of women remained low, but, it was above the 10 per cent margin. Moreover, in as many as 18 constituencies, the women voters’ turnout was higher in terms of percentage against male voters.
Like the NA-64 (Chakwal I) constituency where the women turnout was around 61 per cent as compared to men, which was around 56 per cent.Other constituencies where women voter turnout was higher than the men included NA-46, NA-58, NA-65, NA-66, NA-67, NA-68, NA-70, NA-71, NA-72, NA-74, NA-76, and NA-77.
Still, however, there were constituencies where women represented less than one-third of the total votes cast.
