Elections

Statement by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director

Date: Thursday, July 26, 2018

Mexico's hard swing to the left in this month's national elections also swept in some other historic firsts. Women won key positions across the country, including, for the first time ever, the mayor of Mexico City.

Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, 56, will assume arguably the second most important political post in Mexico, after capturing nearly 50 percent of the vote in the July 1 elections.

First Donald Trump inspired Katie Muth to tell her husband about her rape, then he galvanized her into running for office.

Muth had been married for about five years, but never told her husband about the man she says raped her after the rehearsal dinner of a wedding years before they met.

Ghana is set to have a new head for its elections body, the Electoral Commission (EC). The nomination of Mrs. Jean Mensa as the new EC boss was announced by the presidency on Monday.

She will become the second successive woman to hold the post and will take over from Charlotte Osei – the first female occupant of the seat under the 1992 Republican consitution.

The National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice Trust) in Chiradzulu has called on political parties to create space for women to compete in various positions as only three women have shown interest to contest in the forthcoming tripartite elections.

This comes amid efforts by government and various stakeholders, who are fighting for 50:50 women representation in political positions.

Barely few days after MEC announced an upward revision of nomination fees for 2019 tripartite elections, Women Legal Resource Centre (WOLREC) has asked political parties in the country to mobilize resources that will help them pay nomination fees for their women candidates.

WOLREC Project Officer, Evance Phiri made the request on Wednesday in Neno during an interface meeting between chiefs, religious leaders, media and political parties for increased support for female aspirants.

An election commission representative has informed that the ECP’s aggressive registration drive in collaboration with Nadra and civil society had registered as many as 3.8 million women voters in recent months, compared to the initially identified 12 million women voters who were left out of the electoral rolls.

Record numbers of women are standing for election in countries around the world - changing the global face of politics and bringing gender equality in national legislatures a step closer.

Mexico has just elected an equal number of men and women MPs across both houses of the country's parliament in what is being celebrated as a "major milestone".

The resignation of Robert Mugabe in November last year has brought a glimmer of hope for credible elections in Zimbabwe on July 30 after the many miscarriages of justice in the past three elections.

But, despite a great deal of advocacy and a much-publicised meeting by women from all walks of life with President Emmerson Mnangagwa in May, women’s representation in Parliament and local government will at best remain the same and, at worst, decline.