The position in South Africa is that we do not form separate candidate lists from those of the parties, and independent candidates are a rarity. As I see it, such lists could be divisive. I see lists as a form of necessary affirmative action, of empowerment in the face of lack of opportunity. However, such measures require wisdom if they are to result in fairness and not in incompetence and corruption. South African opposition parties do not specifically promote women in lists or quotas. The ruling party - the African National Congress (ANC)- however, prompted by its ANC Women's League, effected a 30% of women in parliament as a policy for government . President Thabo Mbeki has since called for 50% representation of women. He has won feminist praise for placing women in non-traditional leadership positions. Women in government now number 41.4% in Cabinet, holding more ministerial posts than men and they have reached 39.7% in local government leadership positions. This has resulted from equality laws and policies, by way of quotas such as affirmative action and black economic empowerment, not from placing women on candidate lists. Such listing in my view promotes formal equality as with for example the fairness of having equity,equal numbers of men and women in parliament; but it does not develop substantive equality which would emphasize not just quantity but the quality of one person's capability over another, based on value and justice, not on the formal genetic fact of gender difference but on the social construct which is gender equality. It is on the substantive score that policies have so far failed in large measure in SA and ,in fact, affirmative action where it is largely badly being applied has unnecessarily caused much destructive socio-politico-racist or resentful response. For substantive equality to happen in any meaningful measure, if there are to be candidate lists they should be based on how responsible and capable a person is, not on the shape of their genitalia or the color of their skin, and the candidates listed should be positioned on the lists according to their merit. This is where SA is failing, and the moral vacuum at the top - incompetent, self-serving politicians - has crept insidiously in the form of extensive corruption throughout every aspect and every level of society. In my view this is exacerbating the decline of the "developed" downwards towards the "underdeveloped". Standards have conspicuously drifted downwards rather than expertise and capability being extended upwards. Consequently, SA society has succumbed to its undeveloped world's lack of skills, reducing the possibility of real democracy, with rampant crime - 61,000 raped annually, an official figure of 21,000 murders a year - horrendous enough! But, including attempted and unreported murders, closer to 70,000 according to others working in the field. All of this further robs the nation of its security, its progress, its standards. Promoting women 's participation in the upcoming elections and to ensure their success must surely depend on the context of a country's society. However, I would say that if lists are to be used, if affirmative action and economic empowerment policies are to be applied, it really goes without saying that all this demands gender justice as a guiding principle. It should help to consult via internet information about our Women's National Coalition's work in the 90s, read there also about what the smaller non-governmental groups are doing, and in addressing specifically how to get women into politics I suggest see the website of the group which Babette Kabak and I founded to do this: www.thewomenslobby.org.za Best Wishes, Doris Ravenhill Founder of the Women's Lobby organization and a human rights activist from South Africa