Elections

International IDEA has made women's participation one of its main axes in improving the inclusiveness of electoral processes in the Arab region.

Two women frontrunners seek to unseat Macron as feminist issues move up the agenda.

The 22 years old Saraswati Nepali is the mom of two kids and lives approximately five hours' drive (and five hours walk) away from the headquarter of Karnali Province, Surkhet—a place that paid the heaviest of prices in the 10 year-long armed conflict from 1996-2006. Her first son is eight years old, and her second son is four and half years old, almost as old as her term of office as a ward member in Shiwalaya Rural Municipality (RM) of Karnali Province.

A furious crowd gathered in central Seoul last month to protest against the policies of a man who isn't even in power.

Waving signs and wearing white sashes emblazoned with the words "Vote for Women," they accused presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol of attempting to appeal to anti-feminists to garner support ahead of the election.

"You don't deserve to be a presidential candidate, Yoon," the mainly female crowd chanted. "Go away."

The plan to have five regional seats reserved for women beginning in the general election this year has been shelved, a senior government official told a parliamentary committee yesterday.

Ivan Pomaleu, the secretary to the Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Council, told the committee looking into gender-based violence, that Cabinet on Dec 15 last year directed some State agencies to deliberate on the matter.

As election campaign enters final stages, the two leading candidates have been accused of pandering to sexism to win the votes of aggrieved young men.

The identity of South Korea’s next leader will be determined this week by the economy, housing prices and incomes, but the road to the presidential Blue House will also be dotted with the wreckage of the country’s poisonous gender politics.