WOMEN REPRESENTATION

The Kathmandu Post

3 November 2017

WOMEN REPRESENTATION

The patriarchal mentality of senior leaders of major parties seems to be problematic for women leaders who are looking to get party tickets for the upcoming provincial and federal elections scheduled for November 5 and December 7. The Nepal Congress (NC) leadership has been heavily criticised for nepotism and favouritism and low representations of women leaders in the upcoming elections (“Women candidates few and far between in NC” November 2, Page 1).

The first phase of the upcoming federal and provincial elections will be held in 32 districts. Accordingly, political parties have filed their nomination for 37 and 74 seats respectively. According to the Election Commission, there are a total of 282 candidates contesting for the 37 seats for federal parliament and 420 candidates for 74 seats for provincial parliament. Only 16 and 20 women have filed their nomination respectively for federal and provincial parliaments which indicates that the parties do not seem to care about the constitutional provisions for women candidates.

There are many competent and competitive women leaders who deserve to be given opportunity to contest in the polls. However, only two female candidates from NC and one from CPN-MC are contesting for the 37 seats for the first phase polls. UML has fielded not a single female candidate (“Electoral competency” November 2, Page 6). There does not seem to be any effort made by the so called major parties to at-least honour the constitutional provisions. They should do more than only claim to be the champion of promulgating the new constitution, only boasting about 33 percent of women representation in Parliament.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Via email

http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2017-11-03/anti-people-politics.html

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