Nepals Historic Vote Puts Women in Running
KATHMANDU, 10 April 2008: Inside Nepals sealed borders women are running for the historic April 10 Constituent Assembly elections. As they take advantage of ambitious gender quotas they are learning how to vote and doing what they can to weather campaign violence.
In addition to governing this tiny Himalayan kingdom, those elected on April 10 will draft a new constitution and hammer out the role of the king, who in 2006 relinquished powers to an interim parliament. Seven major parties and about 50 smaller groups are running candidates.
For women the day is particularly a landmark.
Last year, under the influence of a dominant Maoist faction, the interim parliaments seven-party coalition framed an interim constitution that required parties’ candidates to be 33 percent female.
Of these, 50 percent have to be filed in the closed lists, which are selected by voting for parties rather than individuals. The rest are fielded for direct elections.
Those are high numbers for a society where educational gaps offer a glimpse at women’s longstanding subordinate role. The male literacy rate is 63 percent, according to statistics from the Nepal Election Commission; for women it is 35 percent.
– I had to wait so many years and travel to India to complete my schooling in the 1940s because there was no school for girls in Nepal then, Sahana Pradhan, the countrys interim minister of foreign affairs, said in a recent interview.
Waiting for Results
While the quotas are high, Sharda Pokharel, a former member of parliament, is cautious about how they will translate into election results.
Pokharel now heads the Women Security Pressure Group, an umbrella group of womens organizations across Nepal. She suspects parties, simply to fulfill legal requirements, are fielding weak female candidates in direct elections for seats where opponents are sure to win.
Pokharel has been running voter education and awareness programs since November in all parts of the country.
Kilder: Womens eNews og The Push Journal
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