Elections

Domestic responsibilities and social constructs are the biggest hurdles to improving women's participation in politics, a researcher at the University of Indonesia's Politics Review Center (Puskapol UI), Beni Telaumbanua, has said.

"Women encounter a domestic challenge in the form of their responsibility as a wife or a mother," he noted at a webinar on 'Ensuring Women's Participation in the General Election', streamed live on YouTube here on Tuesday.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of only five countries in the world that have no female members of Parliament (alongside Yemen, Qatar, Micronesia, Vanuatu) and is below the global average of 23% female representation in Parliament.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, PNG, for the first time in 25 years (since the 1992 election), no females will make up the 111 - member Parliament - despite more female candidates being nominated for elections in 2017 than ever before; 167 of 3,332 were female candidates.

Zimbabwe is scheduled to hold elections in 18 months’ time, but women are reluctant to have their faces appear on ballot papers.

Women here know only too well that in politics, sticks and stones literally break bones, and name-calling is part of the gladiatorial politics in a country where each election cycle is greeted with violence. From party primaries to national elections, the violent nature of the contests is the history of Zimbabwe, with little being done to provide safe spaces for women candidates.

Women in Turkana County have been locked out of political leadership for many years due to culture. According to the Turkana culture, leadership is for men, and this has disadvantaged many aspiring women leaders, as they are seen as incapable of taking over from men.

Jane Apetet, who is contesting the Senate race, told The Standard that they have been oppressed by the culture. “Our culture is not giving women strength and voice. Normally we are separated from men during community meetings,” she said.

The dawn of 2022 in Uttar Pradesh, apart from witnessing a fiercely fought battle in the Assembly elections, will also decide the political fate of five women politicians.

These women, directly or indirectly, are playing a key role in the Assembly elections for their respective parties, and the poll outcome will prove crucial for them.

Ruwa Romman is entertaining the idea of running for office. The 28-year-old from Duluth envisions herself running on a platform focused on health care, education, social justice and the economy. She also wants to shatter stereotypes and challenge barriers placed on Muslim women.

“The stereotype is that Muslim women don’t vote. They do,” Romman said. “I got politically engaged outside of my Muslim identity, but then I quickly realized my Muslim identity was a necessity to bring with me in this journey.”

Every year, LGBTQ political candidates smash through rainbow ceilings in the fight to represent their communities. 2022 should be no different, with dozens of LGBTQ people already slated to run for both state and federal offices.

But here are five LGBTQ candidates we’re especially keeping our eyes on as they run to make history in 2022.

Earlier this year, following a string of attacks on women in the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, both verbal and physical, a popular female TV host asked rhetorically whether the easiest place in the country to rape a woman is in Parliament House.

Now, a group of independent female candidates are looking to batter down parliament’s doors at the next federal election, to be held sometime between March and May 2022.