Elections

A game of political one-upmanship is being witnessed among the major political parties ever since Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra promised 40% party tickets to women candidates and made some populist announcements for them ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

After making the populist announcements, the Congress has now begun a direct interaction with women, bringing women’s issues into political focus. Other major political parties too are now moving forward with programmes or announcements focusing on women.

Click here to read the full article published by Hindustan Times on 23 December 2021.

During the campaign for local elections in the West Bank, many female candidates’ faces were replaced by a rose or a silhouette on voter lists and campaign posters.

About 65% of eligible voters turned out for the first round of voting on December 11. The second round, which will take place on March 26, will determine the composition of 66 local councils for large municipalities.

Click here to read the full article published by The Bharat Express News on 16 December 2021.

More than 550 women contested local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, the election commission said.

The is the first time that local polls are being held in districts that used to be part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) until recently. Polling started at 8am and closed at 5pm in the first phase of the polls in 17 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Click here to read the full article published by Daily Pakistan on 19 December 2021.

Female candidates are overrepresented for marginal seats at the next federal election, while safe seats for both major parties remain dominated by males, an analysis by Guardian Australia shows.

While the major parties are yet to finalise all candidates for the forthcoming federal election, an analysis of those preselected so far for parliament’s 35 marginal seats shows that about 60% of the candidates across both major parties are female.

Click here to read the full article published by The Guardian on 13 December 2021.

By Glynda C. Carr

In the seven years that Higher Heights and the Center of American Women and Politics have been issuing the Black Women in American Politics status updates, the data has consistently highlighted a challenging reality: Although more Black women are running and winning each year, only a handful have hurdled the very significant, long-standing racial and gender barriers to holding elected statewide executive offices. While Black women make up nearly 7 percent of the U.S. population, we account for less than 2 percent of elected officials in this category, and not one Black woman has ever served as governor in the country’s 245-year history.

The historical absence of Black women on the gubernatorial level is a problematic representational void for the nearly 23 million Black women and girls in the U.S., and the almost exclusively white, overwhelmingly male gubernatorial leadership is detrimental to the country as a whole.

Click here to read the full article published by The Hill on 12 December 2021.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - When political activist Laila ben Khalifa announced she was standing in Libya’s presidential race, she said the most common response was sexist jokes and patronising comments.

Even when she met one of her male rivals in the Dec. 24 election, he mocked her candidacy, she added, questioning whether she expected to win any votes.

That Ben Khalifa is one of only two women to stand for president in a field of 98 registered candidates is evidence that a decade of chaos has entrenched Libya’s patriarchal politics.

With the election still in doubt as rival factions squabble over the rules, the field remains dominated by male armed leaders and political chieftains who have ruled over the fractured country since its 2011 uprising.

Click here to read the full article published by Reuters on 7 December 2021.