Female candidates need financial support

Daily Graphic, Pg 17, Saturday, Nov. 22/08

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho

SOME women parliamentary candidates in the forthcoming general elections have called for the setting up of a fund to support women in politics.
According to them such a fund should be set-up for women who would be contesting for parliamentary seats in future elections.
The women made the call at a day’s forum on ‘the role of the media in enhancing women’s participation in election 2008’ in Accra, organised by ABANTU, a non-governmental organisation, with sponsorship from the African Women Development Fund (AWDF).
The women parliamentary aspirants observed that women most often could not compete equally with their male counterparts because they normally lacked financial backing.
They, therefore, called on the government and other international agencies to come to the aid of such aspiring women politicians so as to help increase the number of women in parliament.
According to them although they had the capacity and willingness to be members of parliament to represent their people in their various constituencies, they were normally defeated because they did not have the financial backing that would enable them to mount effective campaigns.
One of the candidates, Ms Zalia Seidu who said she was contesting the Ayawaso Central Constituency seat for the third time on the ticket of the Peoples National Convention (PNC) said her major challenge was lack of funds.
Another aspirant, Ms Zita Okaikoi, who is contesting the Dome Kwabenya Constituency seat on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) also expressed similar concerns and said the establishment of such a fund was the only way by which women’s representation in parliament could be increased.
Ms Sarah Akrofi Quarcoo who was the facilitator of the forum traced women’s participation in politics from the 1960s and said although the number of women in parliament had increased since then, it was not significant considering the fact that women constituted only 10.8 per cent of the current 230-member parliament.
She said although concerns were more about the quality and impact that female parliamentarians had made in parliament, "it is also significant to note that numbers still count given the fact that the idea of ensuring that a critical mass of women are represented in parliament will encourage greater and more effective participation".
Ms Akrofi-Quarcoo said over the years, the media had brought into sharp focus inequalities in the system, saying that particularly, after the Beijing Conference, "the media supported awareness creation of the critical issues of concern in the Platform for action, significant among which is women’s participation in decision making and politics".
She urged the media to continue with its good work by speaking for women, promoting their interest and participation in politics so that the December elections would see an increase in the presence of women in parliament.
She said the media’s support for the forthcoming elections was crucial since fewer women were contesting the elections from the various political parties.
She said, "our work should not end with the elections. Indeed, post-election issues, such as the appointment of women into key ministerial positions have been more challenging", and called on the media to play an advocacy role in that respect.
Ms Jeannette Quarcoopome, Programme Administrator, Media Foundation for Africa, who chaired the forum, observed that women had not made progress in their participation in political process.
She said the media could support women candidates by mounting persistent campaigns to help whip the interest of the electorate to vote for women.