East Asia and the Pacific

They might not be getting their due when it comes to representation in parliament, but women have increased their participation in the voting process by nearly 10 percent in this general election, even surpassing men in eight states.

Women political participation in Pakistan is constrained due to deep-rooted gender inequality and politics of patronage. There is need to not only sensitize political leadership but also introduce broader legislative and electoral reforms to strengthen women political leadership in Pakistan.

As polling ended on Monday, the 2014 elections recorded the highest ever turnout with 66.38 per cent voters casting their votes to elect 543 members of the 16th Lok Sabha, beating the previous high of 64.01 per cent in the 1984-85 elections.

There is a need for women to organise themselves as a pressure group to be able to carve a niche in the political sphere, three Delhi-based women journalists said Saturday.

Women may get 79 or 14 percent of the total seats in the House of Representatives following April's legislative election; a figure that was lower than the historic high of 18 percent or 103 seats in the 2009 election, researchers said Monday.

It is already the fifth time today that Rama makes a cross in the last column of the table that is displayed on her monitor screen. The column is reserved for sexual harassment. A 16-year-old girl has just informed her on the phone that she "was threatened with a weapon."

WOMEN will continue to be an integral part of the society, says Fiji Labour Party.

Party assistant general secretary Kini Marawai says FLP, since its inception almost 29 years ago, always advocated and championed the rights of women.

A lack of political support is one of the main barriers to women's participation in local government elections, speakers said at a national seminar yesterday, as data show a huge fall in the number of female candidates over past several years.