gender equality

Nouakchott, Mauritania:  A woman has put forward a rare bid for the presidency of Mauritania, a west African nation run under strict Islamic law, the country's Constitutional Council said Wednesday,

"Lalla Mariem Mint Moulaye Idriss dropped off a file at the Constitutional Council containing her candidacy for the June 21 presidential elections," the body said in a statement.

IPU has kick-started its priority support to Egypt in its efforts to establish democracy by providing advice and expertise on the drafting on a new electoral law. The law would have to be in place before parliamentary elections can take place, the last step in a series of planned political processes on Egypt’s roadmap to democracy.

Women in Tamil Nadu not only outnumbered men on the voter list, they beat them in the race for getting the indelible mark on April 24. While 73.51 per cent of men (2,02,27,493) exercised their franchise for the Lok Sabha elections, the number of women who cast their votes stood at 73.86 per cent (2,03,27,045).

Of the total number of voters (5,50,42,876), except the Service Voters, 4,05,54,957 cast their votes in this election. With this, the final poll percentage stood at 73.68.

Women’s issues may be high on the agenda for political parties vying for votes in India’s mammoth general election, but few female lawmakers will get an opportunity to implement the policies being proposed.

Less than a fifth of the candidates standing for the front-running main opposition group, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), or the ruling Congress, are women, according to an analysis.

In the current parliament, women hold only 11% of seats in both houses, less than Pakistan at 21% and Afghanistan at 28%, research by the Inter-Parliamentary Union group shows.

ANC Women's League President, Angie Motshekga, has called on young people not to heed calls to boycott upcoming elections. She was speaking at a Freedom Day rally organised by the Young Communist League (YCL) and other alliance partners in Mfuleni on the Cape Flats.