Only 34 political parties fielded legally required female candidates on general seats

ISLAMABAD: As many as 111 political parties have nominated 275 women candidates to contest the upcoming elections on general seats, making up 4.6 percent of the total 6,037 candidates they have fielded, according to the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Under Section 206 of the Elections Act, 2017, each political party must ensure at least five percent representation of women candidates when selecting candidates for general seats.

FAFEN’s analysis, based on the List of Contesting Candidates (Form-33) for National and Provincial Assemblies, reveals that 30 parties have fielded five percent or more women on general seats.

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Additionally, four parties have fielded between 4.50 and 4.99 percent of women candidates, rounded up to five percent statistically, while the remaining 77 parties have fielded up to 4.50 percent women candidates on general seats.

The level of adherence to the five-percent provision varies across the elective houses. For the National Assembly, 94 parties have allocated tickets to 1,872 candidates, including 92 women (4.91 percent).

In the Punjab Assembly, 70 parties have allocated tickets to 1,878 candidates, with 58 women (3.09 percent). In the Sindh Assembly, 50 parties have allocated tickets to 948 candidates, including 59 women (6.22 percent).

In the Balochistan Assembly, 37 parties have allocated tickets to 533 candidates, with 19 women (3.56 percent). In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, 44 parties have allocated tickets to 806 candidates, including 47 women (5.83 percent).

For further details, refer to FAFEN’s Press Statement at fafen.org, which includes a comprehensive table showing the distribution of candidates across political parties in each elective house, along with corresponding percentages of women candidates for the General Elections 2024.