Women's Coalition Expresses Disappointment

A member of Women's Manifesto Coalition of Ghana, Mrs Elizabeth Akpalu, yesterday, expressed her disappointment at the reduced number of women voted for the next parliament during the December 7, 2008 elections.

According to her, 'the number of female parliamentarians has reduced from 25 to 18, adding that since the constitution of Ghana requires that two-thirds of ministers must be appointed from parliament, it means that even if all the eighteen are appointed, women will still be worse of in the new administration.'

Mrs Akpalu was speaking at a press briefing on the state of the performance of women during the Parliamentary Elections in Accra.

She observed that the two main political parties in Ghana, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have not convinced women who constituted the majority of voters, about their commitments to women's representation and participation in government and the strategies they intend to put in place to achieve gender equity as demanded by the 1992 Constitution.

'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,' she noted.

She appealed to the in-coming government to endeavour to appoint 'more women as Regional Ministers, District Chief Executives, Public office holders 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.  'Such affirmative action ought to be seen as a developmental issue which will be attainable in Ghana's political system.'

She urged the two main political parties to outline their vision on women's issues before the run-off on December 28, 2008 in order to enable women make an informed decision on which presidential candidate to vote for.