élections

Photo-Paulo Whitaker/Reuters

SÃO PAULO—This year, for the first time in Brazil’s history, two women—incumbent President Dilma Rousseff and former environment minister Marina Silva—had a serious chance of winning the presidency. Marina, who sought the country’s highest office after the death of her running mate in August, ultimately fell short, coming in third in voting this week behind Dilma and Aécio Neves, who now enter a runoff.

The Deputy General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah, has said that the country’s economic problems could be solved when a female is elected as the president.

“If you want Ghana to develop, make a woman the president," he said, adding that “corruption will go down if we have many female ministers.”

Dr Baah made the call during the closing ceremony of a five-day capacity building workshop organised by the TUC for 50 of its staff members from all districts in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Brazil's presidential race will go to a second round after incumbent Dilma Rousseff fell short of an outright victory in Sunday's election.

Tunisian laws protect women’s equality more than the laws of most other countries of the Arab world. The law on personal status, promulgated in 1956 by then-President Habib Bourguiba, greatly reduced gender inequality in many facets of family life, including marriage and divorce. However, Tunisian law continues to discriminate against women in inheritance, in child custody, and in other aspects of the life.

Zimbabwe currently has 85 women parliamentarians in the National Assembly compared to 185 men.

This means that the country would not meet the 2015 Sadc deadline, as the next elections in Zimbabwe are only expected in 2018.

Of the 85 women parliamentarians, only 25 were directly elected to Parliament while the other 60 are in the House of Assembly courtesy of a constitutional provision which reserves seats for women.

Photos-AP and Reuters

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's appointment of a record number of women to his cabinet highlights efforts to power the economy by boosting the female workforce -- but he faces myriad challenges turning that vision into reality.

On Wednesday, Abe gave key jobs -- including the justice ministry and oversight of the embattled nuclear power sector -- to women, who now make up more than a quarter of the 18-strong cabinet.

Lawyers, entrepreneurs, academics and civil servants are some of the female candidates standing in Fiji's upcoming elections. Fijians will vote on 17 September, the first elections since the 2006 military coup.

In a bid to connect with women voters, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s women's wing has completed its first objective of setting up units in all the 70 Assembly segments of Delhi, the party has said.

Photo-AFP

Some accused it of being predictable and even boring - a presidential election in which the incumbent was all but guaranteed of being re-elected without, perhaps, even the need for a second round of voting.

But then tragedy intervened and changed everything.

We simply do not know what kind of president Eduardo Campos, the presidential candidate for Brazil's Socialist Party who was killed in a plane crash last week, would have been.