K-PSCW recommends improved access to separate polling stations for female voters

September 10, 2018

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APTOPIX Pakistan Daring Vote — Female voters in Pakistan's dangerous northwest turn out to vote despite the fear of violence and threats, in Charsada, 45 kilometers from Peshawar, Pakistan, where Pakistan's former interior minister and candidate Aftab Ahmed Sherpao survived two suicide attacks, Monday, Feb. 18, 2008. Pakistanis voted Monday for a new parliament in elections shadowed by fears of violence and questions about the political survival of President Pervez Musharraf America's key ally in the war on terror. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Commission on the Status of Women (K-PSCW) has identified a list of areas in Shangla that need to be improved in order to increase female voter turnout for the upcoming by-elections, a local media outlet reported on Sunday.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had cancelled the results from Shangla (PK-23) due to female turnout of less than 10 per cent during the July 25 elections.

K-PSCW recommends a change in cultural norms regarding voting and increasing the number of seperate polling stations.

K-PSCW team also met with local administration to devise other strategies such as asking clerics to raise the issue of female voting during Friday sermons.