More than 2000 registered female voters of Moza Mohripur (Kabirwala) could not exercise their right of vote in Thursday's Local Government elections as their husbands had prevented them from casting their votes. Not a single woman turned up to cast her vote.
"We have established a female polling station and polling booths under the supervision of women staff in Mohripur but no one turned up to exercise her right of vote," Shaikh Jalil Ahmed, Deputy Election Commissioner, said here on Friday. "We are not in a position to take any action in this situation when no complaint was lodged by the candidate or any NGO or women," Jalil said.
Women's non-participation in the election affected polling in many areas as turnout in most of the female polling stations was as low as 20 percent till late afternoon. The filling of six forms for casting vote was another factor that irked women, as even the presiding and polling officers at the polling stations were not fully trained with regard to casting of vote.
Interestingly, different voters' lists were provided to the polling staff and political workers but these lists did not match with each other. There were also complaints of shortage of polling staff.