Experts calculate that the percentage could come down as the proposed proportional representation (PR) electoral system in the upcoming election will account for only 50 percent, whereas it was around 58 percent the last time. [break]
The likely reduction of women´s representation has alarmed women activists and advocates of gender equality, and they have been coming together to organize one interaction program after another and to lobby for their cause.
However, the intervention has not been fruitful so far as the political parties are yet to commit themselves to 33 percent women´s representation.
Speaking at an interaction program in the capital on Tuesday, Chief Election Commissioner Nilkantha Upreti said only the political parties can ensure 33 percent women´s representation in the election. If they do not take it seriously now, women are not likely to get the earlier level of representation.
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“We do not have any clear-cut election laws to ensure a certain level of representation for women. It depends on the parties how gender-inclusive they want to be. Women´s representation would be affected as all the marginalized groups have to be allocated a certain quota from the same pool of PR seats to ensure inclusiveness,” Upreti said.
“What we can do to ensure 33 percent women´s representation is give them 17 percent of seats under PR and 22 percent under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) scheme. But I cannot make that happen; the parties have to endorse it,” he added.
Upreti further suggested that the parties provide at least one seat for women if they win 3 seats, a minimum of 4 seats if they capture 7, and so on.
“Or else, women´s representation is sure to suffer,” he warned.
The interaction program titled ´Ensuring women´s participation in the upcoming election´ was organized by Sancharika Samuha.
Presenting a paper at the program, Prof. Krishna Khanal said that there should be 163 women candidates out of 491 in the CA in order to ensure 33 percent representation for women. If women are not provided odd numbers while preparing the PR list for the election, which is most likely, their number would decline further.
On the other hand, it is quite certain that women´s representation cannot reach 33 percent if less than 45 women are elected through FPTP.
“And overall, we can see that women will not make it to 33 percent if we are not ready to try some alternatives,” he said. “So, to retain the achievement of the past regarding women´s representation, we need to try a few things different,” he added.
Khanal stated that the political parties can provide reservations for women under FPTP or expand the number of seats under PR, among other ways to ensure women´s 33 percent representation.
Meanwhile, Nepali Congress General Secretary Krishna Prasad Situala informed that out of 300,000 active NC cadres, 50,000 to 52,000 are women. “We are in favor of gender inclusiveness,” he said, though he hesitated to say anything about whether the party will ensure women´s 33 percent representation in the election.
Ishwor Pokhrel of CPN-UML claimed that his party would definitely be gender inclusive and that "anyone can take it down in writing as a guarantee". “We have 200,000 active cadres and around 11 percent of them are women," he said.
Post Bahadur Bogati of CPN-Maoist said that his party cannot be compared to others and none of the others have been for ´inclusiveness´ as much as the Maoists. “We fought for inclusiveness and equality. We are always for proportional representation,” he said though he also could not give the audience hope of 33 percent representation for women.
According to former lawmaker Binda Pandey, women´s representation in the election should have been even more as 55 percent of voters are women. “The census data shows that 2 million youths who could voter are abroad. The result is, 55 percent voters are going to be women,” she said.
“It would be better if women are kept in the odd listing while preparing the PR list, and this will also make some difference. Otherwise women´s representation might fall to just around 22 percent.”
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