Political Parties

Johannesburg, South Africa (ADV) – A Malawian NGO Gender Coordination Network (NGO-GCN) has expressed concern on political parties that snubbed women in the internal election processes with many female parliamentary candidates forced to stand as independents,” African Daily Voice has learnt.

Money is a necessary component of the democratic process, enabling the expression of political support as well as competition in elections. At the same time, if the funding of political parties and election campaigns are not effectively regulated, money could also undermine the integrity of processes and institutions of political participation and representation.

Political parties are being tested over whether they are earnestly committed to gender equality in Japan’s male-dominated sphere of politics following a law enacted in late July.

The legislation was an “important step” forward for encouraging women’s participation in politics, said Fumio Kishida, chairman of the Policy Research Council of the governing Liberal Democratic Party.

John McDonnell said he wanted a woman to become the next leader of the Labour party, a day after senior party figures were accused of failing to take allegations of sexual harassment seriously enough.

The shadow chancellor defended Labour’s record on representation of women, pointing out that the party was the first to have a gender-balanced shadow cabinet and had more female politicians than any other political party.

There is a real risk by political parties to undermine the spirit behind the women's quota system which is provided for in the Constitution aimed at empowering women by reserving 60 National Assembly seats for them.

Political parties should be required to publish details of their election candidates by gender to highlight the "shameful" gap in numbers between men and women, campaigners are arguing.

The Centenary Action Group, which wants equal representation in Parliament, said a lack of information meant it was harder to hold parties to account.

They say ministers are able to force compliance under the 2010 Equality Act.

The Lower House moved to address the low representation of women in politics with a bill April 12 urging political parties to field male and female candidates in national and local assembly elections in equal numbers.

The proposed legislation could provide a long-needed incentive to get more women to enter politics. But whether the bill will rectify the disproportionate gender gap remains to be seen as the legislation comes with no punitive clause.