‘Only 40 women MPs out of 275 is a foul cry; it’s disappointing’ — Speaker Bagbin bemoans

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has expressed his disappointment with the low representation of women in Ghana's parliament, describing it as a "foul cry" and "disappointing."

During a public forum held in Tamale to commemorate 30 years of the Fourth Republican Constitution, the Speaker called for more inclusive governance and greater efforts to achieve gender parity in politics.

Statistics reveal that only 14.5 percent of parliamentary seats in Ghana are held by women.

While this represents an increase from 8.3 percent in 2011, it still places Ghana at the bottom of the rankings on the Gender Inequality Index.

The Speaker highlighted that this falls short of the target set to achieve a 30 percent representation of women in parliament by 2020.

He said, “The number of colleagues has surpassed the 30 percent that we all signed to achieve by 2020, and we are lagging behind and so with 40 women MPs in the House of 275 MPs is a foul cry in the newly emerging democracies in the world.”

Speaker Bagbin also expressed concern about the underrepresentation of persons with disabilities and the youth in parliament.

“The representation of persons with disabilities is even worse. The highest of 5.5 percent in the Sixth Parliament is what this country has achieved so far,” he stated.

He continued, “The representation of the youth in Parliament is also still very low and one can confidently say the response to the call for participatory governance is encouraging, but the response to inclusive governance is poor.”

Rwanda has the highest percentage of female political participation in Africa, with 60% of its national parliament seats held by women. With more women in lower house leadership positions than any other country, it also placed first internationally.