LAHORE: Transgender community announced on Monday in Lahore for a boycott in the imminent general elections 2018.
Transgender Neeli Rana explained the reason behind this decision, since Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) failed to include a separate section for them in the nomination forms.
She also added, “Since our different identity is not being accepted, hence there is no use of contesting the elections.”
Neeli, who is a contestant from Lahore, said that she had attained nomination papers from NA-124, but she is not in favor to contest polls.
She also added, “We have not been included in the voters’ list. Therefore, we won’t contest polls.”
According to her, three members of the community had obtained nomination papers for contesting the elections, but now they have also decided to boycott.
However, around 13 transgender persons had announced that they would take part in the polls from various parts of the country, including Lahore.
Out of three, two had decided to contest elections for National Assembly seats, while the 11 would compete for provincial assembly berths.
This decision is mainly a result due to expression of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s transgender community last week, which has led Lahore’s transgender community to take decision over the absence of a separate gender section for the community in nomination.
However, speaking about the apprehensions of the transgender community upon absence of a separate gender section in nomination forms, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asked transgender persons, who intend to contest coming general elections, to write the letter “C” in their nomination papers to show their gender.
READ MORE: Transgenders to write ‘C’ in nomination forms to show gender: ECP
TransAction Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa President Farzana Riaz also disparaged the ECP for not including the separate section.
“Dozens of transgender people across the country are collecting nomination papers from the ECP, but the forms do not have a separate section and are being forced to choose between male and female,” Farzana had said.
As decided Farzana Riaz would contest from NA-33, Arzu Khan from PK-33, Lubna from PP-26, Komal from PP-38, Madam Bhutto from PP-189, Nayab from NA-142, while Nadeem Kashish and Ashi Butt had decided to contest for the Punjab Assembly seats. However, several candidates have announced a boycott now.
