Elections

When Helena Jeppesen-Spuhler, an advocate for the ordination of women, joined a major Vatican meeting this month, she was skeptical that an institution dominated by men for 2,000 years was ready to listen to women like her.

At the last federal elections in 2019, the share of women candidates elected to the 200-seat House of Representatives surged by 10 percentage points to 42%.

This year the proportion slipped back to 38.5% and 77 seats, as the Federal Statistical Office said on Monday following the October 22 election. Final complete results for the 46-seat Senate are due by November 19.

A record 136 women were elected to sit in the Sejm – Poland’s more powerful lower house of parliament – at Sunday’s elections. That means 29.6% of the chamber’s 460 members will now be female, above the global average of 24.3% but below the EU-wide figure of 32.7%.

One of the widest smiles at the front of the National Party’s first group photo belonged to 32-year-old Katie Nimon, the new MP for Napier who not only took the seat from the Labour Party, but is the first woman to hold it.

The achievement is a testament to the fact people can succeed in politics regardless of their background, she said. “I have been myself this entire time.”

With the general elections just around the corner, the low turnout among female voters remains a persistent challenge as Pakistan has suffered from an endemic low voter turnout in general and women voter turnout in specific, casting a shadow over efforts to enhance women’s engagement in the electoral process.

The youngest MP in 170 years is Te Pāti Māori's Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, aged 21, who won the Hauraki-Waikato electorate.

"To see young Māori wahine is so inspirational," she said.