Call for More Women Representatives in Sub-National Politics

As Cambodia nears its second district and municipal council elections in May, about 200 women councilors from the sub-national level attended a workshop Friday to call for political parties to increase the number of women candidates in the upcoming election. Currently, 12 percent of councilors at the sub-national level are women, and some provinces have no female representation at all, said Thida Khus, executive director of local NGO Silaka, which co-hosted the workshop along with the Sub-Committee on Capacity Development to Promote Women in Politics. At the provincial level, only 37 of 374 councilor positions are held by women, and at the district level, just 360 of the 2,880 councilors are women, Ms. Khus said, adding that of the country’s 16,000 commune councilors, 18 percent are female. “This small amount [of women representatives] has a big impact on the councilors ability to do their work on the women and children’s consultative committee, which covers up to 52 percent of the population,” Ms. Khus said. …

Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/call-for-more-women-representatives-in-sub-national-politics-49740/