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Samoa parliament reserves seats for women

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Samoa parliament reserves seats for women

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Samoa’s Parliament has decided to unanimously endorse an amendment to the constitution which will allow five parliamentary seats to be allotted to women candidates.

The amendment was discussed in the house before the third and final reading on Monday, with all 44 MPs present backing the amendment.

Talamua Online reports a flexible formula under which if no woman is elected to Parliament five women candidates who get the highest number of votes will get the allocated seats. This would mean the number of seats would be increased to 54. If less than five women win seats the female candidates who get the most votes will fill the allocated seats.

But if five women candidates win seats in elections, the formula won’t be used and the number of seats in Parliament will stay at 49. A spokesperson for an advocacy group, Roina Vavatau, told Don Wiseman they are pleased but wanted a different formula.

 

We invite our users to read the complete article published June 25 2013

News

Samoa’s Parliament has decided to unanimously endorse an amendment to the constitution which will allow five parliamentary seats to be allotted to women candidates.

The amendment was discussed in the house before the third and final reading on Monday, with all 44 MPs present backing the amendment.

Talamua Online reports a flexible formula under which if no woman is elected to Parliament five women candidates who get the highest number of votes will get the allocated seats. This would mean the number of seats would be increased to 54. If less than five women win seats the female candidates who get the most votes will fill the allocated seats.

But if five women candidates win seats in elections, the formula won’t be used and the number of seats in Parliament will stay at 49. A spokesperson for an advocacy group, Roina Vavatau, told Don Wiseman they are pleased but wanted a different formula.

 

We invite our users to read the complete article published June 25 2013

News