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VOL. 27, NO. 30, April 04, 2008 (Chaitra 22 2064 B.S.)
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Crashed Hopes
Women leaders express disappointment over the lack of enough women candidates
By SANJAYA DHAKAL
Although the top leaders of all the major parties have promised a new Nepal with full inclusion and participation of women as well as other disadvantaged groups in all sectors of national life, the composition of candidates fielded by the major parties indicate otherwise.
"Due to the legal compulsions, they have fielded big number of women under proportional representation category. Even in PR, hardly more than 23 percent of the women will be elected. In the first past the post system, less than ten percent of the candidates are women," rued Uma Adhikary, president of Inter Party Women's Alliance (IPWA).
She added that even those ten percent of women in electoral fray have been fielded in places where their position and organization strength is weak.
"Women have not been given the chance to fight election from their own region and constituency where they have good strength. They have been tossed aside in places where they cannot expect to win," she said.
She said that male candidates have grabbed constituencies where they expect to win but women are forced to accept whatever is left over.
"Worse, they have been compelled to contest nationally influential leaders. A woman is made to contest election against influential leaders like Prachanda, KP Oli, Krishna Mahara and Bamdev Gautam. Male candidates perhaps fear of losing and have registered their names in PR system instead of contesting against influential leaders," said central Nepali Congress (NC) leader Adhikary, who herself was not allowed to contest the election from her preferred constituency in Chitawan and was compelled to opt for PR candidacy.
The IPWA, which consists of central level women leaders of major parties in the parliament including NC, Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), among others, has decided to appeal for votes in favor of women candidates everywhere in the country.
"Since it is extremely important to have enough women representation in the Constituent Assembly, we are appealing the people to vote for women wherever they are in the fray irrespective of parties they represent," she said.
According to Election Commission, of the total 3947 candidates in FPTP system, 367 are women. "There are 16 districts where there is not a single woman candidate," said EC spokesperson Laxman Bhattarai.
Under the Proportional Representation (PR) system, of the total 6000 candidates, the parties have fielded fifty percent women candidates due to legal compulsions. It is not certain, however, how many of them will actually be elected.
"The parties always promise but never fulfill those promises as far as women's right is concerned," said Sita Poudel, general secretary of IPWA and a UML leader.
Adhikary and Poudel believe that since this is not a normal parliamentary election, women cutting across parties need to come together.
"For the time being, we will fight together from different parties. But if there is a need, we can think about forming a separate party for women," they said in unison. "Lets hope that our issues are addressed by our respective parties."
