Election 2024: Female voters eagerly await to exercise democratic right in KP

As the election fever has reached its zenith across the country, female voters are eagerly awaiting to exercise their right to vote despite cold weather conditions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

In KP, a total of 21.928 million voters, including 11.437 million males and 9.983 million females, would exercise their right of franchise in favour of their political parties and independent candidates for the next five years on February 8.

University of Peshawar’s Professor Dr AH Hilali said on Saturday that female voters' role during the 2024 election would be crucial, and any political party that gets women voters’ attention would get an edge over others on February 8 polling day.

He said the low turnout among female voters remains a persistent challenge, especially in the merged tribal districts of KP, the southern districts of Punjab, rural Sindh, and the Baloch belt in Balochistan.

He said that in cases of rainfall, rain, and harsh weather, bringing voters to Chitral, Dir, Swat, North Waziristan, and Parachinar districts would be a big challenge for political parties.

"I eagerly await to cast my first vote in the February 8, 2024, election," said Sidra Qaiser, a young voter and school teacher in the Nowshera district.

She said casting the vote was a national obligation, and she would vote for a political party's candidate after seeing its manifesto.

Dr Hilali said all eyes would be on voter turnout in the 2024 election after the overall turnout rates for the elections in 2008, 2013, and 2018 were 45%, 54%, and 50% respectively.

He said the turnout of women voters in the 2018 general elections stood at 40%, with 21 of the 46 million registered women voters participating in polling.

"The political parties need a lot of work to mobilise women voters, as about 40% of females vote on average, which is considerably low as per international standards.

"Besides political parties, he said the ECP [Election Commission of Pakistan], civil society, and caretaker governments require stronger coordination to mobilise voters for the 2024 election.

He said people have seen the performance of almost all mainstream political parties including PPP, PML-N, JUI-F, ANP, JI, PTI and MQM-P in the last two decades and voters are now closely seeing what is new in its election manifestos.

Zilakat Malik, the former Chairman, Economics Department at University of Peshawar, said that the 2024 election would be totally different from others because no political party was a favourite and people would decide the fate of all 175 parties on the basis of their past government performances and the implementation of election manifestos.

Dr Malik said that free and transparent elections are very important for the continuity of democracy and addressing the country’s challenges like the economy and climate change issues, besides controlling price hikes and inflation that adversely affect the common man.

He said women were about 50% of the country's population, and without their active participation, elections and democracy have no meaning.

The experts said that strong participation of women voters would play a key role, especially in rural areas of Pakistan, and any candidate who got their support would get an advantage over others in the February 8 polls.