Elections

Electoral management bodies (EMBs) are responsible for ensuring a level playing field for political representation and meaningful participation across the entire electoral cycle. Yet, International IDEA data shows that only 22% of EMBs themselves are chaired by women.

When disaggregated by regions (Figure 1.), data from 242 EMBs in 208 countries and territories shows that the percentages indicating the number of women chairing EMBs are below the global average on three continents, with Asia recording the lowest numbers (10%), followed by Oceania (11%) and Africa (19%).

Click here to read the full article published by International IDEA on 7 November 2021.

After a quarter of a century of democratic experience that followed another 25 years of a revolutionary process that put women’s emancipation at the centre of the revolutionary discourse, women in Mozambique still face social, economic and political exclusions that impact their participation and representation in politics in general and in electoral processes in particular, while constituting 51 per cent of the population and 53 of the electorate.

Despite the existence of a normative and legal framework that recognises and promotes the participation and political representation of women in decision-making positions and spaces, including a number of international commitments in this regard, their inclusion in political life in general, is often cosmetic. For example, currently, Mozambique has only three women in the electoral management body out of 17 members, representing one of the lowest levels of women representation in EMBs in Southern Africa. In municipal governance, in the 2018 elections, only six women were elected as Mayors and 8 as Presidents of the Municipal Assemblies, among 53 municipalities. In the 2019 legislative elections, 38.8 per cent of elected members of parliament were women (two percentage points less than in the 2014 legislative elections) – a good number by African and international standards, but still far from the 50 per cent by 2015 commitment in the 2008 SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. Only one of the more than 50 political parties registered in Mozambique is led by a woman and leadership bodies in all political parties are dominated by men. These facts illustrate that the political inclusion of women is a pressing challenge in Mozambican politics that requires the enforcement of international protocols adopted by the country.

Click here to read the full article published by International IDEA on 4 March 2022.

At the fore on social and economic fronts, women are in the backseat when it comes to political representation.

Grace Jajo’s voice first choked and then she broke into tears, a microphone in her hand, addressing a gathering at Manipur Press Club in Imphal, the capital of the northeast Indian state. It was February 6, three weeks before the first of the two-phase election in Manipur was scheduled.

“Today, the (withdrawal of) AFSPA is making it to the manifestos of every political party. But when the respected Irom Sharmila contested, she got only 90 votes. And that’s after 16 years of sacrifice! It’s a very emotional thing, to speak of this…”

Click here to read the full article published by Outlook Magazine on 26 February 2022.

The YWCA in collaboration with the Women Working Group on women’s peace and security has ended a three-day workshop here, geared at preparing women to participate in the 2023 Presidential and general elections as a means of breaking the barriers of women’s participation in national decision making.

The workshop, serving as a catalyst in preparing women to participate in elections was held from Thursday, February 24 to Saturday, February 26, 2022, bringing together women participants from various political parties to sort out ways to break male dominance in the National Legislature.

Click here to read the full article published by The New Dawn on 28 February 2022.

In the recently concluded single-phase Uttarakhand election women voters outnumbered men by more than 4 per cent. Goa had the highest voters overall.

In the recently concluded, Uttarakhand election on Monday, February 14, data about voters was made public by the State Chief Electrol Officer. In the majority of States, men outnumber women in terms of voting participation but in Uttarakhand Assembly Election 2022, women voters have outnumbered men by 4.60 per cent. The total vote per cent of the state was  65.37 per cent out of which 67.20 of women came out to vote whereas 62.60 per cent of men voted for their candidate.

Click here to read the full article published by Republicworld on 17 February 2022.

Some of the countries in the Melanesian region has a low percentage of women in the Parliament when compared to the global average. There are countries which do not have any women in the parliament after the latest elections. While #Fiji is among the better ones, this trend shows that there is a need for concerted efforts to address the obstacles that women candidates face in elections.

Women's representation in Parliament is essential, especially because the female population in Fiji is larger than the male. Equal representation is needed so that half of the population is properly represented and have equal inputs into decision making which will affect them directly and indirectly.

This video was created in the framework of the National Forum on Women in Politics 2021, entitled “What Obstacles Women Politicians Must Overcome to Be Successful in Elections?”, which was started by International IDEA and the Media Watch Group under the European Union-funded C³ - Fiji Project in 2018.

Source: International IDEA