PESHAWAR: In Khyber Pakthunkhwa (KP), where over 128.585 million registered voters—59.322 million women and 69.263 million men—will decide the fate of 175 political parties in the general election of 2024, the electioneering campaign has begun to heat up despite the cold weather.
For the following five years, a total of 21.928 million voters in KP—111.437 million men and 9.983 million women—would use their right to vote in support of their political parties and independent candidates.
Female voters will play a significant role in the 2024 election, according to Prof. Dr. A.H. Hilali, the former chairman of the political science department at the University of Peshawar, who spoke with APP on Saturday. Any political party that attracts women voters will have an advantage over rivals in February.He stated that the low female voter turnout is still a problem, particularly in the rural areas of Sindh, the amalgamated tribal regions of Khyber Pakthunkhwa, the southern districts of Punjab, and the Baloch belt in Balochistan.
He stated that it would be extremely difficult for political parties to get voters to Chitral, Dir, Swat, North Waziristan, and Parachinar areas during periods of heavy rain and bad weather.Sidra Qaiser, a young voter and school teacher in the Nowshera area, expressed her excitement to APP that she was looking forward to casting her first ballot in the election on February 8, 2024.
Voting, she said, was a national duty, and she would support a political party’s nominee only after reviewing its platform.Professor Dr. Hilali stated that as the general voter turnout for the elections in 2008, 2013, and 2018 was 46%, 54%, and 50%, respectively, all eyes would be on the turnout in 2024.
According to him, out of the 46 million registered women voters, women made up 40% of the voting population in the 2018 general elections. Of these, 21 participated in polling.“The political parties need a lot of work to mobilize women voters, as about 40% of females vote on average, which is considerably low as per international standards.”
Besides political parties, he added ECP, civil society, and caretaker governments require stronger collaboration to rally voters for the 2024 election.According to him, Pakistanis have witnessed the actions of nearly all major political parties over the past 20 years, including the PPP, PMLN, JUIF, ANP, Jumat e Islami, PTI, and MQM, and they are now carefully examining the new promises made in their election manifestos.
In addition to the new catchphrase of building three million dwellings for the impoverished, he claimed the PPP leadership was claiming credit for the BISP, the 1973 constitution, development projects in Sindh, and the 18th constitutional amendment.
He claimed that the PMLN supported the building of highways, the construction of a lawari tunnel, the restoration of calm in Karachi and KP, and the 1998 atomic tests at Chagi.Similar to how PTI leadership was emphasizing Sehat Card and BRT, ANP was trying to win over supporters with plans to build universities in the province and rename NWFP as Khyber Pakthunkhwa.
The 2024 election, according to Dr. Zilakat Malik, the former chairman of the University of Peshawar’s Economics Department, would be unlike any other since there would be no clear favorite political party; instead, voters would evaluate each of the 175 parties based on their track records in government and their ability to carry out their election platforms.He asserted that the PTI Parliamentarians and the Istehkame Pakistan Party were the new parties, and that their leaders were out in the public eye educating the public about their plans for development and programs should they win elections.
According to Dr. Malik, holding free and transparent elections is crucial to maintaining democracy, tackling the nation’s problems with the economy and climate change, and reining in price increases and inflation that negatively impact the average citizen.According to him, women make up almost half of the population of the nation, and elections and democracy are meaningless without their active involvement.
