District Level Elections: ABANTU urges electorate to vote for women
The electorate have been urged to vote for more women in the upcoming 2023 District Level Elections (DLE) to strengthen the country's democracy.
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The DLE is held a year to the general elections. The Electoral Commission is yet to come out with a date for the local level elections.
The Senior Programmes Officer for an international women's non-governmental organisation, ABANTU for Development, Mary Ankomah, who made the call on behalf of the organisation at a press conference in Accra yesterday, noted that voting for women would also promote development and empower them.
Ms Ankomah explained that the gesture would also promote gender equality, diversity in decision making and consensus building because women represented the larger percentage of the population.
She stressed that “Women participating in elections, whether partisan or non-partisan, without unfair gender-based barriers is a core component of delivering on the basic elements of democracy”.
Political will
Ms Ankomah, therefore, called on the government to demonstrate political will by implementing international and regional protocols, conventions and agreements on women's minimum thresholds in the participation of decision-making structures.
“We call for the immediate promulgation of the Affirmative Action Bill into Law per agreed by Ghana and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) agreement, as well as in the 1989 Government White Paper that will facilitate the 40 per cent representation of women,” she added.
It also called for the establishment of a funding mechanism for women candidates spearheaded by the state to create opportunities for more women to participate.
Statistics
The Public Relations Manager, National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), Edmund Nii Adjetey Adjei, stated that out of the 261 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), only 39 were women which represented 15 per cent while 10 women were Presiding Members representing about 3.9 per cent.
Mr Adjei urged the media to champion the discourse and draw the nation’s attention to it adding, “the elections are about five months away, people need to know”.
Funding
The Chairman of Food Security Policy Advocacy Network (FoodSPAN), Kingsley Offei-Nkansah, said in order for society to progress, women must be in a position to progress first.