leadership

Opposition challenger Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has become the first female president of Croatia, winning by the narrowest of margins.

She secured 50.5% of the vote with 99% of ballots counted, while incumbent Ivo Josipovic was close behind on 49.5%.

Mr Josipovic has conceded defeat and congratulated his opponent.

The challenger's win is a sign that Croatia may be shifting to the right after the centre-left coalition's failure to end six years of downturn.

A new report on Public perceptions of women in leadership, released in Suva on 5 November, provides a window onto changing community attitudes about the role of women in political leadership in Fiji. The research also provides insight into the views that lie behind women’s increased representation in parliament at the recent elections, to 14%, up from 11% in the 1999 and 2006 elections.

Tunisia, despite being the most advanced Arab nation in terms of women's rights, is still fare from adhering fully to the principles enshrined in the January 2014 Constitution and from abiding by the ratification of international treaties in daily life. Though 47% of candidates for Tunisia's parliamentary elections scheduled for Sunday are women, only 12% of them are on top of the electoral lists of candidates. This is a slight improvement on the previous elections, when the figure was 7%, but still shows a lack of equal opportunities for women.