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Sierra Leone: Number of women in Sierra Leone vote seen as test of stability

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Sierra Leone: Number of women in Sierra Leone vote seen as test of stability

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The elections are seen as a test of stability 10 years after its civil war, with no women standing for president despite a push to register more female candidates.

"All presidential candidates nominated by nine out of the 10 officially recognised political parties are 100% male, and of the nine vice-presidential candidates, five are males," chief electoral commissioner Christiana Thorpe told journalists.

The country's 10 parties had all agreed to seek more female candidates as part of a push to bring the proportion of women lawmakers from less than 20% in the outgoing Parliament to at least 30%. But Thorpe said that of the 586 candidates standing for the 124-seat Parliament, just 38 were female.

Read more at Mail and Guardian, published 18 October 2012.

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The elections are seen as a test of stability 10 years after its civil war, with no women standing for president despite a push to register more female candidates.

"All presidential candidates nominated by nine out of the 10 officially recognised political parties are 100% male, and of the nine vice-presidential candidates, five are males," chief electoral commissioner Christiana Thorpe told journalists.

The country's 10 parties had all agreed to seek more female candidates as part of a push to bring the proportion of women lawmakers from less than 20% in the outgoing Parliament to at least 30%. But Thorpe said that of the 586 candidates standing for the 124-seat Parliament, just 38 were female.

Read more at Mail and Guardian, published 18 October 2012.

News
Issues