NCWC to review women quota for elected posts
March 11, 2017
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… following Cabinet’s rejection of proposal that included introducing a quota
The National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC) will review
part A of the National Plan of Action of Promotion of Gender Equality in
Elected Offices following the Cabinet’s rejection to introduce a quota,
it was pointed out at the conclusion of the 2nd national conference on
women in governance, leadership and politics in Thimphu, yesterday.
NCWC’s director Kunzang Lhamu said they formulated two parts of the
national plan through various consultations with stakeholders and it was
formally submitted to the Cabinet for approval in 2015, a year after
NCWC held several rounds of consultation with stakeholders.
She said that part A includes the introduction of a quota for women in all elected offices and nomination of candidates.
NCWC’s senior programme officer, Sonam Penjor, said that part A
identifies and suggests possible entry points in the current electoral
system that will ensure representation of women at the nomination level,
thereby increasing the scope of women to be elected.
He said that as for the consultation, the best way forward for part A
is to ensure the nomination of a minimum 33 percent female candidature
by each political party for both primary and general elections of the
National Assembly.
It was pointed out that 33 percent is the internationally accepted
representation of women required to ensure responsive discourses and
resolutions.
“Our intention is not to reserve seats for women but to diversify the
choice for voters by ensuring that there is a female and a male
candidate,” Sonam Penjor said. “The political parties could actually do
this voluntarily. But then, we might not meet the set target.”
The section also states that the government shall ensure all
necessary support or services are provided for the contesting female
candidates in the general elections. “However, it comes with a condition
that the 33 percent criteria should be incorporated in the Election
Act,” Sonam Penjor said.
As for the National Council (NC) elections, it states that each gewog
is eligible to nominate two candidates, a male and a female, to contest
at the dzongkhag level elections.
It also states that in the event of a nomination of two or more male
candidates and one female candidate from a gewog, only one male shall be
selected to contest. “The same shall apply in the event of nomination
of two or more female candidates and one male candidate,” the senior
program officer said.
The proposal also includes ensuring that each village and chiwog will
nominate only two candidates to contest in the elections for the post
of gups and mangmis.
However, some of the participants say that doing this would restrict male candidates.
A participant, Tsheten Zangmo, raised her concern over how the
authority concerned would select the two candidates, a male and a
female, if a chiwog or a gewog has more than two male and female
aspiring candidates.
Kunzang Lhamu said that the commission will re-consult with stakeholders and review the proposals in part A.
Meanwhile, NCWC officials said that the cabinet approved part B of
the plan that was endorsed by NCWC in its sixth commission meeting.
Part B includes activities to respond to women’s needs, creating an
enabling legislative and policy environment to enhance women’s
participation, introducing support systems and services, conducting
continuous awareness and advocacy programmes on gender equality and
capacity building, among others.
During the conference, other pertinent women issues were also
discussed. It included under representation of women in political
parties.
A Danish-Swedish professor of political science at the Stockholm
University, Professor Drude Dahlerup, said that a country without
universal suffrage will not be labeled a democracy today. “Today, an all
male or a strong male dominated political assembly has lost its
democratic legitimacy.”
She said it is the responsibility of the political parties to be more
inclusive in terms of gender and also minorities and youth. “Because it
is the political parties who are the gatekeepers to the nominations of
the candidates for the election.”
She also said that theories of the connection between socio-economic
development and women’s political representation are challenged by
actual developments, especially by the use of quotas.
Some of the panelists discussed if more education and more
development would lead to more women representation in political
parties.
The professor said that there is no historical evidence of this kind
of connection. She said that the theory that the richer a country is,
the higher the representation of women is no longer applicable.
The professor gave an example of Thailand, where she stated women are
well educated but women representation at political sphere is only 4.9
percent.
She said there are so many qualified women in the civil society of Bhutan and there are enough to fill the whole parliament.
The professor added that the question of qualification has to be
reconsidered when it comes to women representation as the post is about
representing people. “If you look at India, there are people who are
uneducated but a good representative of people. Therefore, we have to
think out of the box,” she said.
The professor said that Bhutan is a new democracy and it has an
opportunity to start from scratch to be all-inclusive in terms of gender
and minorities unlike in old democracies where the political
institutions were established before women had the right to participate.
She said that only eight percent of Bhutanese women were elected to
the National Assembly in 2013 and many blamed women voters not voting
for women for the low female representation.
She pointed out that there is no data to back this theory and that in many constituencies there were no female candidates.
Of 47 constituencies in the country, three-fourth had only male
candidates, which means only nine constituencies had both female and
male candidates.
She said that data available from the Election Commission of Bhutan
for 2013 election state that number of votes casted for female and male
candidates were almost same and it was an indication that when women are
there, the voters support them as much as they support men. “Women
voters should not be blamed but political parties are to be blamed for
not having women in three fourth of the constituencies.”
