Elections

Move Forward Party MPs Wuttipong Thonglour and Chaiyamparwaan Manpianjit were expelled from the party after it was decided by the party’s disciplinary board that they had sexually harassed party volunteers.

Zimbabwe’s recent election has exposed weak gender policies both at the political party and governmental levels as women were sidelined despite the fact that they make up more than half of the 6.5 million electorate.

Herald on Sunday research shows that despite promises to act from most parties, just a third of all the candidates selected to fight the next general election are women.

The SNP has selected substantially more candidates than any other party, with 53 of the 57 they will need for the vote in place. Of those 35 are men, around 66%.

WOMEN’s Affairs minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, yesterday bemoaned the imbalance between men and women in politics saying this undermined the principles of democracy and social justice.

Mutsvangwa, who was opening the 5th edition of the Women in Local Government Forum congress, said the decline in women's participation showed that Zimbabwe remained a patriarchal society.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has launched a media awareness drive among people with the overarching goal of motivating their active involvement in the electoral process, uplifting 49% of women population participation and increasing voter turnout during the forthcoming elections.

The Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, issued on Wednesday a royal decree appointing members of the State Council, the second legislative chamber. The council consists of 86 members, including 18 women.

The Sultan also issued a decree appointing 14 members, including three women, to the Omani Human Rights Commission.

The Shura Council elections in the Sultanate of Oman witnessed a significant change in the representatives of the Council for the tenth term, while women suffered a resounding loss, as no female candidate was able to win membership in the 90-member Council.

56 non-governmental organizations and individuals from academia have signed an open letter addressed to the Romanian Parliament expressing their support for the introduction of gender quotas on candidate lists for the upcoming parliamentary elections.