EDITORIAL: It’s heartening to note that the share of female voters in the total polled votes in 2024 saw a “marked increase” compared to 2018, according to a report titled Women in Elections, compiled and presented by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen).

It turns out that 24.4 million of the 58.9 million votes were cast by women, an increase of 2.7 million from the previous cycle.

In percentage terms, the share of female voters in National Assembly constituencies rose from 39.4 percent in 2018 to 41.4 percent in 2024, while in provincial assemblies it grew from 40 percent to 41.4 percent.

Interestingly, according to the report, this gender gap in turnout narrowed from 10 percentage points in 2018 to nine points in 2024 even as total voter turnout – both male and female – dropped across regions, except in Islamabad.

This is no doubt the result of greater political awareness, especially in the youth, as PTI’s growing appeal challenged the traditional political status quo and attracted sections of society that never bothered to take part in the electoral process before.

The low turnout last time must owe to certain restrictive measures employed by the state. A lot of voters could not find their designated polling stations, and the cellphone and internet shutdown did not help.

Yet an unprecedented vigour was still noticeable, especially in young voters. And the fact that females accounted for a greater part of the voting public than before marks a significant shift in Pakistan.

Outfits that gather data and have a finger on the pulse of such trends, like Fafen, could see this change developing ahead of time. The report also noted that female voter registration has “significantly improved” over the last 10 years, reducing the gender gap from 12.8 percent in 2013 to 7.7 percent in 2024.

Over the last five years, especially, female voter registration has outpaced that of males by 10 percentage points, with female voter numbers increasing by 27 percent compared to a 17 percent rise for males.

Additionally, female political participation has also increased over the years. The number of female candidates in the 2024 elections doubled compared to 2018, with 902 women contesting 509 of the 859 national and provincial assembly constituencies.

This was a sharp rise from the 465 female candidates contesting 339 constituencies in 2018, according to Fafen.

Yet, welcome as these trends are, challenges remain. Women participation in elections is not uniform across the country. So far Punjab has taken the lead in narrowing the gap, reducing constituencies with over 10pc gender gap from 214 in 2013 to just 17 in 2024.

But other regions, especially Balochistan, are far behind, with the number of constituencies with over a 10pc gap dropping from 45 in 2018 to 30 in 2024.

Also, despite all the gains, “women are still underrepresented as voters, legislators and political leaders” as political parties “continue to favour male candidates when awarding election tickets”.

And there are still many areas in the country where female participation in elections is looked down upon contemptuously.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024