Quotas

While the arrest of Mongolia’s former president Nambaryn Enkhbayar on corruption charges has been dominating headlines, another quieter, but very significant event took place earlier this summer on June 28, when nine women won seats in the country’s parliamentary elections. This is triple the number of women elected just four years ago.

Women from the civil society and political activists are demanding for their 30 percent quota as the deadline to the formation of a new government draws near.

Women attending a political workshop in Vanuatu have agreed to pursue a quota system for the 2016 election.

Nearly 20 women, who are intending to stand in the October election, have been attending a workshop organised by the department of women’s affairs into the workings of parliament and being an MP.

Read the complete story at Radio New Zealand, published 9 August 2012.

A civil society group criticized the Cabinet’s approval of a new electoral law Wednesday, calling the draft legislation a “show” and warning of protests if the proposal moves forward in its current form.

The Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform held a news conference at the UNESCO Palace to highlight the parts of the law they took issue with, including a new gender quota and unchanged voting age.

Tanzanian National Assembly Speaker Anne Makinda has urged women to look beyond their allotted 30% quota in the National Assembly and seek full 50% representation by participating in elections in constituencies, Tanzania's Daily News reported Monday (August 6th).

"You must not fear and we cannot cling on to special seats forever; we must go to the constituencies and fight. Let us not let down Tanzanian women," she said to a group of women lawmakers.

A record number of women were sworn in as legislators as Senegal's new parliament was inaugurated on Monday.

Sixty-four women now have seats in this West African country's 150-member National Assembly, thanks to a law on gender parity.

But the breakthrough made by women candidates has relaunched a debate on the quality of their work in the legislature.

The women’s quota for the parliamentary elections was among several issues that cabinet ministers didn’t agree on during a session held at Baabda Palace on Tuesday, media reports said.

An umbrella body of more than a hundred women groups from across fourteen chiefdoms in Kailahun district, the Kailahun Women in Governance Network KWIG, has expressed grave concerns over the yet-to-be actualised 30% quota proposed for Sierra Leonean women to actively participate in the day today administration of the country, saying it is long overdue.

According to the women, despite assurances by President Ernest Koroma to ensure that the bill is passed into law, the document has been gathering dust at the House of Parliament.