Elections

The 2022 Fiji general election, for 55 seats in the Parliament, will take place on 14 December 2022. So far 316 provisional candidates have been named from 8 of the 9 political parties of which 55 are women—17 per cent of the total number. The figure is likely to increase with more provisional names expected to be announced soon. A political party may nominate up to 55 candidates by midday of 14 November 2022.

In the 2018 Fiji general election, for 51 seats in the Parliament, which took place on 14 November, 235 candidates from 6 political parties stood for the elections. Of the total, 56 of the candidates were women—24 per cent of the total number. This was an increase in the number of women standing compared to the 2014 general elections. The 2018 election brought a record number of women into parliament, where women held 10 of the 51 seats (20 per cent). Therefore, there was approximately 4 per cent attrition rate when compared to the number of candidates that ran.

Click here to read the full article published by International IDEA on 15 November 2022.

The Democrat takes over as the second Black mayor in LA’s history, beating a rival who spent over $80m of his own money on the race

The congresswoman Karen Bass was elected mayor of Los Angeles, defeating billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso and becoming the first woman to run the second-largest city in the US.

The Democrat, who has served as a US representative for more than a decade, had amassed an insurmountable lead of nearly 47,000 votes, with 70% of the votes counted, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, nearly one one week after the election. Caruso had a slight lead in the first counts after the polls closed, but Bass soon surpassed him and steadily increased her lead as ballots were counted.

Bass, who will also become the second Black mayor in LA’s history, overcame a huge financial disadvantage. Caruso poured more than $100m (£87m) of his own money into his campaign, which spent roughly ten times as much as the congresswoman’s.

Click here to read the full article published by The Guardian on 17 November 2022.

The first round of polls held to elect the new Parliament and Municipal Councils on Saturday created many milestones in Bahrain in terms of participation.

Among them was the record number of women and youth who queued up to cast their ballots across the nation.

According to the head of the Legislation and Legal Opinion Commission and the Executive Director of Parliamentary and Municipal Elections 2022, Nawaf Abdullah Hamza, 48 per cent of female voters and 45 per cent of youth participated in the grand celebration of the Kingdom’s democratic process.

Click here to read the full article published by the Daily Tribune – News of Bahrain on 15 November 2022.

With few women FPTP candidates, more of them may need to be elected to the upper house to meet the requirement.

Cross-party women politicians have long been lobbying with their leaders to increase the number of female candidates in the first-past-the-post (FPTP) elections. Their efforts to secure one-third women candidates in direct election, however, couldn’t materialise as the parties prioritised male candidates.

The CPN-UML, which has fielded 141 candidates for the House of Representatives seats, spared only 11 tickets for women. The Nepali Congress is way behind, with just five among 91 candidates being women. The CPN (Maoist Centre), which has been a vocal supporter of inclusion, has nine women among its 47 candidates. The CPN (Unified Socialist) and the Rastriya Janamorcha have a woman candidate each.

Click here to read the full article published by The Kathmandu Post on 13 November 2022.

LJUBLJANA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Natasa Pirc Musar, a lawyer, won the second round of Slovenia's presidential election on Sunday and will become its first female head of state, preliminary results showed.

Pirc Musar, 54, won 53.86 percent of votes in the runoff, while her rival, right-wing politician and former foreign minister Andze Logar, won 46.14 percent, according to election commission data based on 99 percent of the votes counted.

"I will do my best to be a true president for all, to work for fundamental and constitutional human and democratic rights and democracy,"” Pirc Musar told reporters after claiming victory.

Although the role is mostly ceremonial, the president is commander in chief of the armed forces and also nominates several top officials, including the central bank governor. Most of the nominations have to be confirmed by parliament.

Click here to read the full article published by Reuters on 13 November 2022.

The US will have a record number of female governors in 2023. Still, the record-setting number – 12 – will represent a small fraction of the top executives across the 50 states.

The previous record of nine female governors serving concurrently was set in 2004, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

Incumbent female governors in Maine, Alabama, Michigan, Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas and New Mexico won reelection on Tuesday, while New York Gov. Kathy Hochul won a first full term after taking over the top job in 2021 following the resignation of Andrew Cuomo. Hochul will become the first elected female governor in the state.

Click here to read the full article published by CNN on 9 November 2022.