ASUNCION (Reuters) - In Paraguay's election on Sunday, Soledad Nunez, a 40-year-old engineer and former minister, is looking to break into the South American country's male-dominated political arena as its first elected female vice president.

Nongovernmental organizations and activists struggling for equal representation of women in politics and social life have criticized the low number of women on political parties’ parliamentary candidate lists, describing it as “dishonorable.”

Even though the Finnish elections were won by a male, women dominated Finland’s general election that took place on Sunday, with the most successful candidates being female.

The winner of the election is Peterri Orpo from the National Coalition Party with 20.8% of the vote, followed by Finns Party leader Riikka Purra in second place with 20.1% of the vote.

The proportion of women among the candidates for the 2023 Finnish parliamentary elections is higher than ever before, according to a press release from the Finnish Statistics Centre. Women now account for 42.9% of candidates, which is 0.9 percentage points higher than the previous election in 2019. The majority of candidates in past elections have always been male, but now there are 1,039 female candidates compared to 1,385 male candidates.

The call for an increase in the representation of women in governance and other leadership positions has remained a mirage in Nigeria, with several factors militating against it, especially since the advent of the Fourth Republic.