Women local leaders fear diminished representation

By Manjima Dhakal

Kathmandu, Apr. 26: As the Election Commission (EC) has started nomination process for the representatives of local governments across the country from Sunday, women leaders have said that there are fears that presence of women at the local governments may diminish as parties are forging alliance for upcoming local elections.

Article 17 of the Local Level Election Act stipulates that a political party must ensure that one of the local level head or deputy head must be a woman while registering their candidature. "However, the provision will not apply if the party fields only one candidate," adds the act.    Because of the provision, women's representation as local level chiefs and deputy chiefs will decrease when alliances are formed in most parts of the country, leaders and analysts of political parties said.

Women leaders and women deputy chiefs of various political parties have complained that the political parties do not have much faith in women even though they are capable of leading in the upcoming local elections. They said that the parties could not trust them as leaders because they are women.

Dharmashila Chapagain, member of the House of Representatives and central member of the CPN (Maoist Centre), said that the issue of women's participation and empowerment should be taken up as a movement. Chapagain said that it would be difficult for women to rise through the ranks if the trend to win election spending a lot of money is not stopped. CPN-UML leader and National Assembly member Bhagwati Neupane said that due to policy weakness, women participation in the upcoming election is bound to dwindle. Nepali Congress leader Laxmi Khatiwada said that the current debate should centre on increasing meaningful participation of women.

Dilu Pant, a politburo member of the CPN (Unified Socialist), said that the parties now are zeroing in on the persons able to spend most amount of money and so the provision is sure to wreak havoc on women's representation.

Similarly, Ramrati Chaudhary, Deputy Chief of Chandrapur Municipality, Rautahat, said that though she was confident that she could be a strong contender for the post of a chief due to her performance in last five years, but her party had been reluctant to give her a ticket because of her gender.

Dil Kumari Pun, Deputy Chief of Tarakhola Rural Municipality, Baglung, complained that the alliance directly challenged women representations at local government.

These women leaders have asked the concerned authorities to take concrete steps towards making women’s participation meaningful.