Usually, the selection of running mates in Ghana is done to ensure that more votes are captured. There has been an argument that to promote equality in Ghana, women must be given the chance to also stand or represent a party in the national elections be it parliamentary or Presidential. In parliament, for instance, less than 30 percent of the Members of Parliament are women. Thus, there have been calls to allow women to stand.
Kwesi Pratt explained that he fully agrees with that call. However, he believed that just because we are in a haste to promote equality does not mean that we should choose any woman to stand. He gave an example that has happened in this country. He revealed that although Ghana needed a woman President, he did not run into supporting one woman who wanted to stand for President. He refused to mention the name of the person he was referring to but Akua Donkor was the first to come to mind. According to him, she was not a representation of women at all. Kwesi Pratt explained that he would have been the campaign manager of that woman if that was the case.
He further argued that no party can just take any woman as running mate without looking at the person’s background.
“I firmly believe that women are disadvantaged in this country. I believe that in this country, we are practicing a system of patriarchy and I believe that the potential for development is limited simply by limiting women’s participation in national affairs. But I am not foolish enough to tell you that you can just go and pick any woman to make your running mate or President and that resolves the problem. I am not that foolish or stupid. Otherwise, I would have become the campaign manager of the woman that contested the election some years ago. Because I know that woman is not a representation of women. There are better women than her”
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