Women will vote in twice as many general elections in 2024 as they did in 2018: Fafen

902 women are running in Pakistan’s 2024 general elections, up from 465 in 2018, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Only 35 of 111 political parties, the report found, provided tickets to at least 20 female candidates. Fifteen of these parties did not allocate five percent of their tickets to women as required by law. There were no female candidates nominated by any party in 77 constituencies.

191 independent women ran for 123 seats in the National Assembly, according to FAFEN. In the meantime, 592 female candidates ran for 340 seats in the provincial parliament, increasing their vote share and winning seats overall over the previous elections. The percentage of women who cast ballots increased from 2.7% in 2013 to 4.3%.

The 5% ticket allotment law was followed by a few significant political parties, such as the National Party, Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-Pakistan), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

The PML-N exceeded the quota by allocating 7% of its National Assembly tickets to women, compared to 5% for the PPP.

For female candidates, the MQM-P contributed 9%, the GDA contributed 23%, and the IPP contributed 15%.

In Punjab, PML-N allocated one percent of tickets to women, while Jamaat-e-Islami issued 2 percent, and PPP distributed 5 percent.

In Sindh, the PML-N issued 14% of the tickets, while the PPP and MQM issued 5% and 4% of the tickets, respectively.

Additionally, there was an improvement in the gender gap in voter registration. Over the previous five years, women’s registration rose by 27%, while men’s grew by 17%. According to FAFEN, the gender gap among registered voters decreased from 12.8% in 2013 to 7.7% in 2024.

But there were still notable disparities in areas like Sindh (8%), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (9%), and Balochistan (12%).

Despite advancements, gender disparities persisted in some communities.

The difference was 18% in NA-44 South Waziristan and 29% in NA-266 Qilla Abdullah.

At 230 polling places, 51 seats also recorded either no female votes or a turnout of less than 10%.