Vanuatu

Vanuatu’s Parliament has passed legislation providing for reserved seats for women in the country’s Municipal Councils.

The amendment to the Municipalities Act, which was passed with unanimous support among MPs, provides that one seat in every ward in a municipality must be reserved for a woman.

Under the new law, a female candidate for an election to a municipal council cannot contest for both a reserved seat and a general seat in a ward in a municipality.

While no women managed to secure a seat in the national election and again in the provincial election, this does not represent a failure on the women part as the high number of women contesting recent elections has set a record for the country.

In the national election there were 17 women and in the provincial elections of Penama, Malampa, Shefa and Tafea 8 women contested. This is a political achievement for the women of Vanuatu compared to the number of women contestants the past.