By Bertha Badu-Agyei
Accra, Nov 28, GNA – Women groups, including the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) and women’s wing of the various political parties, have appealed to the electorate to look beyond political party affiliations and vote for women in the December elections.
That, according to the women’s group, was the surest way to increase the number of females in the Ghanaian parliament and to ensure that Ghana steadily advanced towards achieving increased participation and representation of women in governance and leadership.
The appeal was made at an Inter-Political Strategic Meeting, organised by the AWLN with support from the UN Women and the African Union to dialogue on strategies to deploy, to increase women in Ghana’s next parliament in 2025.
Currently only 40 females are represented in Ghana’s parliament out of 275 seats constituting 14.5 percent. Unfortunately, only 29 were able to secure their political party’s candidature to contest for re-election in the 2024 polls on December 7.
Dr Charity Binka, Ghana chapter President of the AWLN, emphasized the need for all women to rally behind female candidates especially those contesting for parliament in their constituencies to win their seats to increase the number of females in parliament.
She said given the fact that 11 out of the 40 female parliamentarians had already lost the opportunity to come back, it was critical for the electorate to give massive support to the women contesting, irrespective of their political affiliations.
“AWLN and many other women groups expect that at least 100 out of the 118 contesting in the December elections will be voted to go to parliament as a testament of the country’s commitment to the recently passed affirmative and gender equity law passed by parliament and accented by the President of the Republic.”
Mrs Susan Aryeetey, Executive Director, FIDA Ghana, said statistics show that women’s representation in African parliaments moved from 25 per cent to 26 per cent from 2021 to 2024 and “at this rate it will take more than 100 years for African parliaments to achieve gender parity.”
Statistics also show that 51.75 per cent of Ghanaian women were registered voters and that clearly shows that with the full support of women voters, female contestants could maximize votes and increase their representation in parliament come January 2025.
Mrs Bridget Dzogbenuku, a former presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), said increasing women in leadership was as critical as improving the national economy and therefore called on the electorate especially, women to rally behind their fellow women to win in the December polls.
She debunked the notion that women were in competition with men for power but rather explained that women constituted more than 50 percent of the population and therefore side-lining them was a grave mistake for national development.
Mrs Elizabeth Sam, running mate of the Liberal People’s Party, called on women to lead the charge for gender equality and increased representation of women in parliament, while affirming the call for women to be voted for irrespective of their political affiliations.
She noted that one of the barriers impeding women’s participation in governance and leadership had been political party affiliations and urged all women to close their ranks and vote for women contesting in their constituencies.
GNA
