<<Print>>

Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has called for legislation that will ensure a balanced representation of both men and women in governance.

His call follows reports by the Institute of Local Government Studies and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, which indicated that, 61 years after independence; only 45 women have been appointed to ambassadorial positions as compared to 319 men.

Ghana’s Parliament is still far off from the 30 percent mark set by the United Nations for women representation with its current 37 women MPs.

A worldwide ranking of women participation in governance also pegged Ghana at 143rd position out of 193 countries surveyed. This means Ghana has a long way to go in promoting women participation in the country’s politics, and urgent steps must be taken to address the challenge.

But, according to the MP who is also the Ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, enacting laws to ensure a balanced representation will go a long way to yield the needed results.

“I think it is now time to consider legislation. We have been doing advocacy for a long time. We have urged, appealed, prayed; but I think it is time for us to get a law that binds everybody.”

“Political parties must reserve a quota of their strongholds for women. After all these decades, we are not making progress; but rather we are declining.

The tokenism where political parties reduce filing fees by half for women is not enough; I even think it is an insult to our women. Can’t we have laws that a percentage of our constituency should be reserved for women?, he quizzed.

Increase parliamentary seats to 300, reserve the extra 25 for women – Haruna

Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, also wants the number of seats in Ghana’s parliament increased from 275 to 300, with a reserved number of 25 seats for women.

According to him, the extra 25 seats should reflect the size and strength of the political parties in Parliament and will help encourage women empowerment in the country.

“Today, we have 275 seats in Ghana’s Parliament. We can decide that we want to add an additional 25 and dedicate it to only women and decide that, that 25 reflects the size and strength of the political parties in Parliament,” he said.