Women voters

While Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world to have ever been led by a woman prime minister, it would be fair to say that former PM Benazir Bhutto and current Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz are the exception and not the norm. There is also the fact that both are the daughters of prominent male politicians. If we look at political participation in general, Pakistani women have often been relegated to the fringes. They have been and are less likely to vote, run for office and hold office. However, signs are now emerging that this picture is beginning to change. According to the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), in its report ‘Women in Elections’, there has been a significant rise in women’s participation as voters, polling staff and candidates. Women cast 24.4 million of the 58.9 million total votes in this year’s general elections, an increase of 2.7 million women votes from the previous general election in 2018. This is almost double the increase in votes cast by men, with the male vote rising by 1.6 million votes in the 2024 general elections.

The number of female candidates contesting this year’s general elections nearly doubled compared to 2018, largely driven by a surge in independent female candidates. This year’s rise in women’s political participation is not an anomaly, with the voter gender gap narrowing from 12.8 per cent in 2013 to 7.7 per cent in 2024, reflecting a consistent rise in women voter registration over the past decade. In fact, in the last five years the female vote has grown faster than the male vote by about 10.0 per cent. This is a very encouraging shift and it is hoped that this rise in women’s participation will lead to more women legislators and ministers too. An inclusive democracy has eluded Pakistan for far too long, hamstringing the state’s ability to effectively represent and serve all of its citizens. And while the results of this report should be celebrated, the consensus among sitting and former women parliamentarians, civil society, election experts and journalists is that we need electoral reforms to enhance women’s participation as voters and candidates, with a particular emphasis on promoting intra-party democracy.

The focus must now be on eradicating the remaining gender-gap of about 9.9 million votes. Worryingly, almost three quarters of this gap is made up of female votes between the ages of 18 and 35. This reflects under-registration of women voters within this age group, which is rather surprising given that one would have assumed it would be younger and better educated women voters who were driving the rise in the female vote. A possible solution would be to prioritise the hiring of more female polling staff and taking other steps to make voter registration and voting itself more accessible to women. This could also involve door-to-door voter registration campaigns to make sure as many people as possible are registered to vote. This would disproportionately help women given that their access to the public space can still be rather restricted as compared to men. Arranging transport for women voters to and from polling stations could also help. What the country cannot afford is to rest on its laurels and assume that the existing gender-gap will close on its own with time. Any let up in efforts to enhance women’s political participation might lead to a regression in the progress that has been made.