Elections

Italy's far-right leader Giorgia Meloni says she would be "honoured to break a taboo" and become the country's first female prime minister.

Exit polls suggest her Brothers of Italy party won Italy's snap general election on Sunday.

The party leads a right-wing bloc -- which also includes the parties of Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi -- that is forecast to get at least 36.5% of the vote share. The most optimistic outcome would see the coalition get 46.5%.

That means Italy, which has seen 67 governments come and go since World War II, is likely to be led by a woman for the first time.

Click here to read the full article published by Euronews on 26 September 2022.

The Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) is capacitating women across the country to contest in the forthcoming general elections under the programme Women Rise in Politics, with support from United Nations Women. 

Under the programme, the commission is hosting workshops for women interested in participating in politics to provide them with critical information to enable them to contest the male-dominated political space. 

According to the latest census results, women make 52 percent of the population but despite this, there are few women than men in political positions. 

Click here to read the full article published by Chronicle on 14 September 2022.

For the first time, a Massachusetts election was dominated by women candidates, who won primaries in five out of six statewide races on Tuesday — an unprecedented showing in a state that had trailed in women’s political representation.

With Maura Healey and Kim Driscoll emerging as the Democratic nominees for governor and lieutenant governor, voters could make history by electing the first all-female duo to lead a state. With three additional women on the Democratic slate, and two on the Republican side, the state is positioned to have women seated across the top levels of government in an election cycle many political observers expect will be defined nationally by the energy of women voters.

“Massachusetts has always led and it’s nice to see it’s finally leading by electing women up and down the ticket — after 235 years,” said Democratic political strategist Mary Anne Marsh.

Click here to read the full article published by Boston Globe on 7 September 2022.

Women lack confidence, doubt their qualifications and wait to be asked, say pundits. The narrative directs attention away from the real culprits.

Men dominate Canadian politics. In the 2021 federal election, men represented 57 per cent of candidates for the Liberal party, 67 per cent of Conservative candidates and 70 per cent of elected MPs.

Yet rarely do we hear about men’s political dominance. Instead, we hear about women’s absence. Women don’t run, the pundits say. Women lack confidence, doubt their qualifications and wait to be asked. Women must, as a 2019 House of Commons report concluded, be empowered to stand.

Click here to read the full article published by Toronto Star on 11 September 2022.

For the first time, Indonesia, dubbed the world’s third largest democracy, will hold the general elections — the presidential and legislative elections — and nationwide regional elections in the same year. Taking place in 2024, it will be perhaps one of the year’s biggest democratic events, which people across the globe will closely follow. 

Indonesia has, since 1999, held six national elections and hundreds of local elections, where every vote counts, to choose the president, legislature members, governors, regents and mayors, in a relatively democratic manner. But in most cases, men have won public offices. 

Despite making up almost half of the population, women have traditionally been underrepresented in elected positions, including in the House of Representatives – even after Indonesia introduced over a decade ago a minimum of 30 percent female legislative candidates for each political party contesting the elections.

Click here to read the full article published by The Jakarta Post on 29 August 2022.

Kuwaitis to head to the polls on September 29 to elect next parliament after National Assembly was dissolved in June.

Kuwait's Interior Ministry has received more than 115 registrations from candidates before polls to elect the next parliament after more than a year of political tension between the National Assembly and government.

The first day for registration on Monday closed with 107 male and eight female applicants across the five electoral districts.

Kuwaitis are expected to head to the polls on September 29 to elect its next parliament more than two years since they last cast their ballots after the National Assembly was dissolved in June.

Click here to read the full article published by The National on 30 August 2022.