Women's Manifesto Coalition calls for affirmative action

Daily Graphic, Pg 11, Thurs. Dec. 18/08

Story: Salome Donkor & Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Women’s Manifesto Coalition of Ghana has expressed its disappointment at the abysmal performance of women in the just-ended parliamentary election.
It has, therefore, called on political parties to adopt an affirmative action or a form of quota system as a deliberate intervention strategy, which it says is not new to the country’s political culture.
It said affirmative action must be seen as a development issue which would be attainable in the country’s political system, saying that as of 2006 23 countries across the world used that system which was enshrined in their various constitutions to increase women’s participation in governance.
The coalition called for a revision of the 1992 Constitution, saying that without the appropriate constitutional provisions in place, affirmative action in relation to the political empowerment of women would be difficult to attain.
A member of the coalition, Mrs Elizabeth Akpalu, who stated its concerns at a press briefing in Accra, said since women were in the majority in the country, there was the need for their balanced representation in decision-making structures.
Twenty out of the 103 women who contested the December 7 parliamentary election have emerged victorious from the results so far declared by the Electoral Commission (EC).
They are made up of seven new female Members of Parliament (MPs)-elect and 13 women who retained their seats.
Fourteen won their seats on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), five on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and one on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
Five new women won the New Juaben South, Lower West Akyem, Tema West, Amansie West and Evalue Gwira seats on the ticket of the NPP, while Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah won the Jomoro seat for the CPP and Halutie Dubie Alhasan of the NDC wrest the Sisala East from the incumbent PNC member, Moses Dani Baah.
In 2004, 104 women contested the parliamentary election, out of which 25, comprising 20 from the NPP and five from the NDC, were elected into the current 230-member legislature.
The Greater Accra Region fielded the highest number of 18 female candidates, out of which four won, while none of the five women who contested in the Northern Region won.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, a Principal Electoral Officer at the EC, Mr Fred Tetteh, said the NPP and the CPP each fielded 23 female candidates, while the People’s National Convention (PNC) fielded 16 female candidates, with 15 women contesting on the ticket of the NDC.
Ten women contested on the ticket of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), while the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) fielded nine female candidates.
Six out of the 25 women who are currently in Parliament did not contest the 2008 parliamentary election.
Female MPs such Ms Anna Nyamekye (Jaman South) and Ms Hilda Josephine Addo (Kwadaso) lost to males during the primaries, while Mrs Gladys Asmah (Takoradi), Ms Christine Churcher (Cape Coast), Ms Theresah Amaley Tagoe (Ablekuma South) and Mrs Grace Coleman, who did not contest during the primaries, have had their slots filled by males.
“We firmly believe that without the active participation of women and the incorporation of women’s perspectives at all levels of decision-making, the goals of equality, development and peace cannot be achieved,” Mrs Akpalu said.
Buttressing her point with numerous conventions, declarations and protocols such as the Beijing Platform for Action, the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the African Union Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality and the Protocol on the Rights of Women to the African Charter, she said achieving the goal of equal participation of women and men in decision-making positions would provide a balance which more accurately reflected the composition of society’s interests and the general good of all citizens.
As a way of improving the number of women in the next administration, the coalition called on the two contesting political parties in the upcoming run-off to, as a matter of urgency, outline their vision for women before the polls on December 28, 2008.
According to the coalition, the various political parties, especially the two major ones, the NPP and the NDC, did not do much to help in increasing the number of women in Parliament.
“The NDC and NPP have not convinced women, who constitute the majority of voters, about their commitment to women’s representation and participation in governance and what strategies they intend to put in place to achieve gender equity as demanded by our 1992 Constitution,” it said.
The coalition, on behalf of the women of Ghana, demanded that the next government ensure that more women were appointed as regional ministers and district chief executives and also that more women be appointed to public offices, such as boards of corporations and institutions, as well as the higher echelons of the bureaucracies, in accordance with the demands made in the Women’s Manifesto of 2004.
It said women would continue to engage with the winning political party and the next government to further address their demands and others contained in the manifesto.