Elections
As Nigeria prepares for another electoral cycle ahead of the 2027 general elections, concerns over political violence, voter intimidation, and electoral insecurity continue to dominate national conversations.
Across the country, civil society groups, women leaders, and peace advocates are increasingly calling for greater inclusion of women in politics, arguing that women’s participation could play a significant role in reducing electoral violence and promoting peaceful democratic engagement.
Nigeria has a long history of election-related violence. The 2011 post-election crisis remains one of the deadliest in the country’s democratic history. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), more than 800 people were killed in post-election violence that erupted across 12 northern states after the presidential election.
The violence displaced thousands and exposed the deep political and ethnic tensions surrounding elections in the country.
Croatia’s track-record on gender equality in science has been both questioned and lauded in recent months, following both bad and good news on the topic. On the one hand, a senior awards committee was announced without a single woman researcher included. On the other, the national science academy welcomed its first cohort of fellows with more women than men.
Members of the committee, which gives national awards recognising scientific achievement, are proposed by the ministry of science and endorsed by the parliament. The current line-up does include a woman, but she is culture minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek rather than a researcher. Even then, she didn’t make it into the photograph released to announce the appointments on April 16.
“The image speaks a thousand words,” says Tanja Rudež, a science journalist for Jutarnji List newspaper. “I am surprised that none of these men, all well-known scientists, saw a problem with the fact that there was not a single successful female scientist on the committee,” she told Science|Business.
Ivan Đikić, a prominent Croatian biochemist based at Goethe University Medical School, commented on LinkedIn that the news illustrated a “sad truth” about the state of science in Croatia.
“It [. . .] reveals a system where women, despite contributing a substantial share of high-quality, internationally competitive science, are systematically excluded from the very processes that determine recognition and influence,” he wrote.
Women leaders and advocacy groups across Nigeria have intensified calls for greater support for female candidates ahead of the 2027 general elections.
They urged women to unite across political, ethnic and religious lines to boost female representation in elective offices.
The national president of the Women Wing of the Peace Revival and Reconciliation Foundation of Nigeria, Ramatu Tijjani, made this known in Kaduna.
Ms Tijjani congratulated women who emerged victorious in their respective party primaries and appealed to Nigerian women to support female candidates regardless of political affiliation.
She said increasing the number of women in elective positions was essential for strengthening democracy, promoting inclusive governance and accelerating national development.
Seoul's district chief races remain heavily male-dominated ahead of the June 3 local elections, even as female candidates gain ground in neighboring Gyeonggi Province.
Among the 25 district chief races in the capital, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) have so far confirmed only two female candidates combined, both incumbent district heads seeking reelection.
The lack of new female contenders has renewed criticism that Seoul's political scene remains difficult for women to break into.
The Centre has tabled three bills in the Lok Sabha during a three-day special session that began today (April 16). These bills – the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Delimitation Bill, 2026 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment Bill), 2026 — are expected to cause a showdown in Parliament.
The opposition is up in arms over delimitation, which the government has linked to the implementation of reserving one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and in the Legislative Assemblies of States and Union Territories (UTs). These bills aim to expedite the rollout of the women’s quota before the 2029 general elections.
Let’s take a closer look.
In Bangladesh, the transition from a government job to a political career is not as straightforward as it ought to be. Under Section 12(1)(f) of the Representation of the People Order, 1972, government officials are eligible to contest parliamentary elections only after a period of three years—commonly known as a cooling-off period—has passed since their resignation or retirement from office. This provision is based on valid concerns, but its broad implementation raises significant issues regarding inclusivity and the future of political engagement, particularly for women.
The purpose of the cooling-off period is to deter people from using their positions, power, or privileged knowledge for gaining political advantage, and thus preventing perceived political patronage, misappropriation of public resources, and conflicts of interest. Additionally, it prevents former public employees from exploiting their previous positions for personal or political gain, especially by moving directly into a political role where they might receive disproportionate benefits. The concept of separation of powers and public trust could be undermined if civil servants were free to transition into political positions. As a result, the cooling-off period serves as a deterrent, strengthening accountability and safeguarding institutional integrity.
Although the provision’s intent is sound, its application might be sweeping and too basic. Not every public employee holds a position with substantial decision-making or executive power, access to confidential data, or the potential to influence political outcomes. For example, a government officer in grade 10, 11, or 12 might not be as influential as executives at the directorial level, especially if they held no administrative or policymaking responsibilities. These variations are not taken into consideration when the same three-year restriction is applied consistently to all levels of public service.
Ahead of the general election, the End Violence Against Women Coalition and 70 other leading organisations published a joint manifesto calling on all political parties to adopt its recommendations for ending this abuse.
The manifesto sets out our priorities for the next government; calling for a comprehensive, whole-society approach to tackling VAWG. We framed this manifesto around ten key areas:
- Rights and inequalities
- Prevention
- Funding and commissioning of specialist VAWG services, including ‘by and for’ provision
- Economic barriers
- Partnerships and multi-agency working
- Health and adult social care
- Housing
- Family courts and children’s social care
- Criminal justice reform
- Perpetrators
After a disappointing round of political debates in which VAWG was glaringly absent, EVAW wrote to political party leaders setting out our key priorities for ending VAWG. We now review: How do the political party manifestos of 2024 match up with our own?
Our polling found that 76% of people do not trust politicians generally to tackle violence against women and girls, and it is up to political party leaders to change this.
Access here the full manifesto published by the End Violence Against Women Coalition on 28 June 2024.
Image source: EVAW Coalition
Last week, all UK political parties confirmed which candidates they were standing in each constituency for the 2024 general election. Including independents, a total of 4,515 candidates will be fighting for a seat in the next government.
If you’ve already tried out our candidate name game, you’d have seen how the most common name was David, owned by a whopping 104 candidates. The Johns came in second with 84 candidates called by this name, and the Pauls a close third with a total of 79.
In fact, when tallying up the most common candidate names, we noticed the top 10 in the list are all male names. It is not until reaching position 11 that you come across the female name Sarah, owned by 43 candidates. Of course, this could be due to women having more diversity in their names. However, it is less easy to dismiss that out of the 4,515 candidates standing, only 31% are women.
Read here the full article published by the Electoral Reform Society on 20 June 2024.
Image by Electoral Reform Society
On June 2, over 60 percent of registered Mexican voters went to the polls for a monumental election, with over 20,000 public offices up for grabs at the federal and local levels. This election was historic, as a woman was elected to hold the highest office in Mexico for the first time. This comes more than 70 years after women gained the right to vote and stand for election. Over the past few years, women in Mexico have gone from being fringe operatives in the political arena to taking center stage. Still, this transformation took time and deliberate action to achieve.
While gender quotas have been used in Mexico since the early 2000s, they were not enough to achieve equality. In 2014, Mexico transitioned from relying on its gender quota system to a “gender parity system,” which mandates equal opportunity based on gender in candidate lists for local and national offices. This transition did not occur naturally; it resulted from consistent, permanent debate at all levels by activists, institutions, academics and women in politics who worked together across party lines to close the political gender gap.
The Impact of Gender Quotas in Mexico
Mexico’s 2002 first legislative quota passed by Congress required that 30 percent of candidates be women, with specific penalties for parties in cases of non-compliance. In 2008, the gender quota was raised to 40 percent, but parties were exempt from complying in cases where candidates were selected in democratic primaries. Six years later, in 2014, gender parity mandates were enshrined in Mexico’s constitution, marking the highest protection standard for women’s political rights. The impact of these hard-fought efforts has been undeniable; women’s participation in Congress has steadily increased with every reform.
Read here the full article published by Ms. Magazine on 11 June 2024.
Image by Ms. Magazine
In India, as in many democracies around the world, there has long been a discernible gender gap in citizens’ political participation. For decades, Indian men were significantly more likely to cast their ballots on election day compared to women. It is noteworthy, therefore, that in the country’s 2019 general election, the historic gap between male and female turnout came to an end; for the first time on record, women voters turned out to vote at higher rates than men (see figure 1). Predictions for India’s upcoming 2024 general election suggest that this trend is likely to continue.
Although the gap between male and female voter turnout in India has been gradually shrinking in recent years, the convergence in electoral participation is nevertheless surprising for multiple reasons. First, as noted by Franziska Roscher, the increase in female turnout in India is occurring while female labor force participation—an important driver of women’s political participation—remains low compared to peer economies. Second, national-level data from the National Election Study (NES), conducted by the Lokniti Program of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, and other smaller studies confirm that women lag men across all measures of nonelectoral political engagement. For instance, data from two separate primary surveys—conducted in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh by political scientists Soledad Prillaman and Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner, respectively—demonstrate that while the gender gap in voter turnout has closed, gaps are all too visible in other forms of sustained political engagement, such as contacting elected representatives, attending public meetings, and participating in campaign activities. Third, women continue to be underrepresented in India’s national parliament and its state assemblies.
Read here the full article published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on 5 April 2024.
Image source: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Introduction
Over the last twenty years, the world has witnessed significant shifts towards greater gender equality in politics, which in turn has had positive implications for democracy and society at large.
Mexico has witnessed a systematic incorporation of gender perspective, equality, and parity in public life, signifying a transformation of women's ability to participate in the country's future. The prime example is the National Electoral Institute (INE) mandate, later ratified by the Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF), for political parties to guarantee gender parity in all upcoming gubernatorial elections of 2024: Chiapas, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, Puebla, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatán, and Mexico City.
Unfortunately, as women's participation in politics rises, an increase in political violence that explicitly targets women has also occurred. The 2020-2021 electoral process was the most violent against Mexican women.
Mexico´s political system is awash with political violence that explicitly targets and affects women, obstructs social justice, and hinders democracy. The advances in female political participation have been met with resistance as men, territorial interest groups, and political elites seemingly feel threatened by increasing female power and respond with violent actions to uphold the traditional system of politics to deter women’s independent participation.
Read here the full article published by the Wilson Center on 13 March 2024.
Image source: Wilson Center
In 1906, Finland became the first country in Europe to grant women the right to vote, with the adoption of universal suffrage, at the same time as it won its autonomy from the Russian Empire. The following year, Finnish women were able to exercise this right in the general elections. Throughout the twentieth century, women in Europe and around the world fought long and hard to gain the right to vote without any additional conditions to those required of men. In some countries, only widows were allowed to vote as a first step towards electoral emancipation (in Belgium, for example, until 1921). In other countries, such as Bulgaria, the right to vote was initially reserved for mothers of legitimate children and exclusively for local elections. In Portugal, only women with a university degree were allowed to vote from 1931 on. In Spain it was not until post-Franco democratisation and the 1976 elections that Spanish women regained the right to vote, initially acquired in 1931 before the civil war. This year France is celebrating the 80th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. Cypriot women won the right to vote at the same time as their male counterparts when the Republic was created in 1960. This can be explained quite simply by the fact that, at that time, such discrimination could no longer be justified. So, it took a good part of the twentieth century to get there...
Read here the full article published by the Foundation Robert Schuman on 5 March 2024.
Image source: Foundation Robert Schuman