Elections
Ten men are competing for Zimbabwe’s top job after two female candidates failed to raise enough funds to file their nominations.
The challenge was not only a problem of financing, as the fee to register as a presidential candidate rose to $20,000 for this year’s election, but that political parties failed to honour their pledges to field enough female candidates, according to Sitabile Dewa, the executive director of Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE).
Click here to read the full article published by The Africa Report on 13 July 2023.
While women make up 49% of Nigeria’s population, their representation in politics and governance doesn’t quite match. There were 44 million women registered to vote in the past general election (out of 93 million total), but only 6.7% of women hold positions in governance.
In an effort to create awareness on these numbers and ahead of the Nigerian general elections in February, BellaNaija, in collaboration with UN Women and the Government of Canada, launched the Women in Politics and Governance Campaign to highlight and propel the participation of women in politics in Nigeria. Multiple discussions were held across social platforms and speakers from different fields were invited to bolster the conversations.
Click here to read the full article published by BellaNaija on 7 July 2023.
Female participation in the politics and governance of Nigeria has been way down below average since the country’s transition to representative democracy in 1999. Nigerian women seem comfortable in the back seat judging by their poor outings every election year.
Females make up about 49 per cent of the country’s population; and according to the 2023 voter register of the Independent National Electoral Commission, of a total of 93,469,008 people who registered to vote, 44,414,846 or 47.5 per cent were females. Yet, in the just concluded election, females who contested elective positions from federal to state levels performed poorly, even more poorly than in previous elections.
Click here to read the full article published by Ripples Nigeria on 6 July 2023.
Despite several conversations on more women’s participation in Nigerian politics—before and after the 2023 elections—the debate is still on for more women to be included in Nigeria’s political leadership. Let’s show you how bad things are.
Out of 1,553 women who contested for various political seats across the federal and state levels in the 2023 elections, only 72 were elected. 1,487 of these women lost.
Click here to read the full article published by Zikoko on 5 July 2023.
As the country prepares for the upcoming elections, and political parties gear into electioneering mode, what remains missing from the mainstream discourse is fair representation of women, and their meaningful participation in the electoral process.
This, in simple terms, means fair distribution of party tickets to women candidates (as opposed to being awarded party tickets in potentially losing constituencies); equal representation of all divisions and districts on party lists for reserved seats for women (as opposed to women on reserved seats representing provincial capitals only); and allowing women to freely and safely contest without intimidation or threats of violence. But how can this be ensured in a highly polarized political landscape in Pakistan?
Click here to read the full article published by The News on 4 July 2023.