Elections

There’s no avoiding it: 2024 is a presidential election year.

As part of its commitment to enhancing gender equality and fighting sexism against women candidates and local office holders, the Congress launched, on 18 January 2024, a practical Guide for women and men on preventing and combatting sexism in local politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the 2019 general elections, Indonesian voters elected 118 women to the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR). Although an increase from 2014, when just 97 women were elected, women still only account for 21 per cent of the 575-member parliament. That means women’s political representation in Indonesia remains lower than the 30 per cent candidate quotaimposed by the Law on Elections No. 10, 2008.

In 2024, 1.5 billion people are expected to vote in national elections in what will be a record year for democracy, with elections happening in at least 64 countries and the European Union. 

So what will that mean for women in leadership at a time when men still overwhelmingly dominate on the world stage?

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 120 million people were pushed into vulnerable situations and we witnessed a great need for more community engagement and participation across the board. Coupled with domestic economic instability, political upheaval, countries in transitional democracies have borne disproportionate burdens. Over the years, there has been a conversation that has been missing from the development space, and especially in women’s development, that has the potential to bridge the gap between scholars and practitioners.

Following President Megawati Soekarnoputri's term, Indonesia, the largest nation in Southeast Asia, has yet to witness a woman at its helm.

It has been 20 years since the country had a female leader. This situation will persist through the upcoming Presidential 2024 election, as female candidates have yet to emerge on the political horizon.

More than 70 national elections are scheduled for 2024, including in eight of the 10 most populous countries. But one group is likely to be significantly under-represented: women. A major reason is the disproportionate amount of abuse female politicians and candidates receive online, including threats of rape and violence. The rise of artificial intelligence, which can be used to create sexually explicit deepfakes, is only compounding the problem. […]

Although two women — Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia — served as prime ministers of Bangladesh for 31 out of 33 years since 1991, the representation of women in national politics is still negligible.

The low rate of participation of Bangla women in politics is clear when looking at the number of women candidates contesting the upcoming 12th general election. According to the Election Commission, 92 contestants out of 1,891 vying for 300 seats are women. That's 4.86%.