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ISLAMABAD – The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in a recent survey has revealed that only 19 women candidates, one percent of the total 1499 candidates, contested the recently held Cantonment Boards elections.
FAFEN reported that of 19 women candidates, nine contested independently, while three were awarded tickets by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), two by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and one each by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and Pakistan Muslim League (PML).
FAFEN highlighted that despite Section 206 of the Elections Act, 2017 warranting political parties to ensure a minimum five percent quota for women on elective seats including candidates for the Parliament and provincial assemblies, it remains unclear whether and how it may be applied upon for the local government elections, it reported.
In its latest survey on CB elections across the country, FAFEN said that the overall election process remained peaceful, but the turnout remained low with only 32 percent of the people used their right to vote with few electoral irregularities.
FAFEN further said that polling day was efficiently managed and remained largely peaceful and by law, although the incidences of procedural irregularities could have been minimised through greater investments in training of election officials and measures for their effective enforcement.
According to data collected by FAFEN observers from the respective ROs, PML-N bagged the largest vote share of approximately 27.7 percent of the polled votes, which was closely followed by PTI with 26.9 percent votes, independents with 20.9 percent, PPP with 6.3 percent and TLP with 6.1 percent of the votes polled.
PTI emerged as largest party in 13 cantonment boards, followed by PML-N in 10, PPP in three, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in two and Awami National Party (ANP) in one. In two cantonment boards, the mandate is equally split between PTI and PML-N, while in the remaining eight cantonment boards, independent candidates figured as the largest party, said FAFEN.
FAFEN reported that a total of 20 political parties contested the elections including PML-N, PTI, PPP, PML, JI, TLP, ANP, Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT), Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam – Fazal (JUI-F), Qaumi Watan Party–Sherpao (QWP), Pakistan Awami Tehreek(PAT), Tehreek Jawanan Pakistan (TJP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Nazriati (PTIN), Barabri Party Pakistan (BPP), Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen Pakistan (MWMP), Pakistan Aman Tehreek (PAT), Pakistan Muslim League–Functional, Muttahidda Qaumi Movement Pakistan Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP). As many as 1,499 candidates contested the LG elections. Of these, 898 candidates represented 20 political parties, while the remaining 601 contested the elections independently.
Among major political parties, PTI fielded 178 candidates, followed by PML-N 140 and PPP 111. Besides these parties, JI awarded tickets to 105, TLP to 84, MQM to 41 and JUI-F to 25 candidates.
In Punjab, 859 candidates were in the run for 119 seats, followed by 422 in Sindh for 54 seats, 171 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for 37 seats and 47 in Balochistan for nine seats.