South Africa elections: Women in parliament likely to drop
Source: Gender Links
Johannesburg, 31 May: As election results from the 2024 South African elections pour in, Gender Links (GL) predicts a drop in women’s representation in the national assembly of between three and five percentage points.
The result would be South Africa dropping from its current twelfth place in the global ranking of women’s political participation (WPP) to twentieth. Chantal Revel, princess of the Koranna Royal Household of the Khoi and San First Nations people, who made history by changing South Africa’s electoral system for this election through the Constitutional Court, is not on the ballot papers.
“While democracy is the biggest winner in this election, there may be other casualties,” noted GL Special Advisor Colleen Lowe Morna. “We are watching the numbers closely, because gender equality is intrinsic to every aspect of democracy. It should be a key metric in election analysis.”
There is a close correlation between WPP in South Africa and the electoral fate of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), both because of its dominance in the past, and its voluntary party quota now at fifty percent. The ANC is predicted to lose considerable ground in the 2024 elections. While several political parties have shown commitment to including women on their party lists, other more conservative parties have not observed the principle of equality.
After increasing to 43% in 2009, WPP decreased to 40% in 2014 and then rose to 46% in 2019. Now all indications are that the proportion of women in the national assembly will drop back to the 2009 levels or below.
Several factors make 2024 a watershed election in South Africa. The 2024 elections are arguably the most contested since the advent of democracy thirty years ago in 1994, when the ANC won 63% of the vote.
Read here the full article published by Gender Links on 31 May 2024.
Image by Gender Links
Johannesburg, 31 May: As election results from the 2024 South African elections pour in, Gender Links (GL) predicts a drop in women’s representation in the national assembly of between three and five percentage points.
The result would be South Africa dropping from its current twelfth place in the global ranking of women’s political participation (WPP) to twentieth. Chantal Revel, princess of the Koranna Royal Household of the Khoi and San First Nations people, who made history by changing South Africa’s electoral system for this election through the Constitutional Court, is not on the ballot papers.
“While democracy is the biggest winner in this election, there may be other casualties,” noted GL Special Advisor Colleen Lowe Morna. “We are watching the numbers closely, because gender equality is intrinsic to every aspect of democracy. It should be a key metric in election analysis.”
There is a close correlation between WPP in South Africa and the electoral fate of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), both because of its dominance in the past, and its voluntary party quota now at fifty percent. The ANC is predicted to lose considerable ground in the 2024 elections. While several political parties have shown commitment to including women on their party lists, other more conservative parties have not observed the principle of equality.
After increasing to 43% in 2009, WPP decreased to 40% in 2014 and then rose to 46% in 2019. Now all indications are that the proportion of women in the national assembly will drop back to the 2009 levels or below.
Several factors make 2024 a watershed election in South Africa. The 2024 elections are arguably the most contested since the advent of democracy thirty years ago in 1994, when the ANC won 63% of the vote.
Read here the full article published by Gender Links on 31 May 2024.
Image by Gender Links