The Election Complaint Cell for Women set up by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women (KPCSW) received three complaints - one each regarding non-provision of drinking water, electricity and washrooms at a few polling stations.

The election to 16 general seats in the new districts, formerly known as Fata, marked the first time there was no complaint regarding female voters being stopped from voting. Previously, women were barred from voting sometimes under verbal and written agreements among candidates of various political parties.

Amna Waheed Durrani, Director Programmes, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women (KPCSW) tells TNS that the women’s elections complaint cell has received only three complaints regarding the July20 election.

She says two complaints have been received from Khyber district and one from Bajaur district regarding non-provision of drinking water, electricity and washrooms. "The cell referred the complaints to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the ECP’s district monitoring teams quickly addressed the problems", she says.

"We were expecting a lot more violations of laws related to women voting in a patriarchal society so we set up special complaint cells for women to deal with problems on the polling day," says Durrani, adding that peaceful voting came as a pleasant surprise to everyone.

On August 23, 2013, the ECP had announced re-election in two National Assembly constituencies in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa -- Nowshera and Lakki Marwat -- following reports of women being barred from voting in these constituencies. No such report was received this time.