Dr Bossman Asare, the Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), according to Starrfm.com.gh, has voiced his worry, regarding the low participation of female candidates in Ghana’s 2024 general elections, highlighting this issue as a considerable gender gap that obstructs inclusive political representation.
Speaking at a forum at Winneba, in the Central Region, Dr Bossman Asare reportedly said out of more than 800 parliamentary candidates nationwide, only 120 are women, a situation he described as “unfortunate.”
“In this year’s nomination, the filing fee for female candidates and persons with disabilities was reduced by 25 percent. So for the presidential election, male candidates paid GH¢100,000 while female candidates and persons with disabilities paid GH¢75,000.
“For the parliamentary elections, male candidates paid GH¢10,000 while female candidates and persons with disabilities paid GH¢7,500.
“The idea was to encourage more women to take part in the process, but unfortunately, the numbers that came were not very encouraging,” the Deputy EC boss was quoted as saying.
Though The Chronicle is worried about the statement being attributed to Dr Bossman, we do not think he told lies. What he said is the gospel truth – the participation of women in our body politics seem to be going down. Of course, this development does not pertain to Ghana alone – it is a global issue.
The Chronicle is yet to read or hear of a report from any part of the world where women dominate the parliament, even though they constitute the majority of the world’s population. This shortcoming, notwithstanding, the involvement of women in politics in Ghana has always fallen below expectation and that is the crux of the matter.
Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, did a marvellous job in the 1980s and early 90s when she used her 31st December Women’s Movement to empower women in the country.
As a result of this tireless effort, which were supported by the National Council for Women Development, women are today holding sensitive positions in academia and the world of business.
Unfortunately, this transformation has not happened in the field of politics. Since 1992, the election of women to parliament has been low. The development can be attributed to our cultural practices that sometimes see women who are into politics as lacking morality. As a result of this backward cultural belief, most men do not even encourage their wives to enter into politics for fear of being castigated or denigrated in public.
It is an undeniable fact that some of our male politicians had in the past used all manner of unprintable words against their female counterparts, with some even calling some of these female politicians as prostitutes. Women continue to suffer this embarrassment just because some of them decided to contest Parliamentary seats.
In our opinion, if we are to fight and defeat this canker, then we have to review some of our cultural practices. The current situation where some of the ethnic and religious groups in the country see women in leadership as an affront to men must be addressed. Where possible, there must be a legislation that will address the name calling of women politicians.
Though some of these cultural, religious and traditional beliefs are not written down as laws, it is having a negative effect on women when it comes to politics.
This is the reason why our chiefs, who are custodians of our culture, should lead the crusade to erase this negative perception about women from the minds of our people.
A mere lamentation, as Dr Bossman has done, in our view, will not solve the problem. As a country, we need to take pragmatic steps to solve the issue once and for all. As we put this piece together, a woman is on the verge of being elected the President of the United States of America. Can’t we do same in Ghana? Yes, we can, if we erase this negative idea that women should not dabble in politics from our minds.
