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Female legislative candidates urged to unite

Jakarta Post - March 7, 2009

Ni Komang Erviani, Denpasar – The recent Constitutional Court ruling has brought together in a solidarity campaign female candidates concerned about missing out on seats.

The court decided to award legislative seats to candidates who win the most votes.

In a public dialogue titled "Vote for the Females", held by the women's rights NGO Forum Perempuan Mitra Kasih Bali, female legislative candidates agreed to work together to garner votes.

"Everyone will move together to convince voters to vote for female legislative candidates," women's activist Sruti Luh Riniti said Friday.

The dialogue was held at the Bali Provincial Legislative Council building.

The Constitutional Court ruling has been widely dubbed a blow to aspiring female politicians.

The court's eight-judge panel scrapped Article 214 of the legislative elections law that allowed leaders of political parties to handpick close supporters, rather than candidates winning the most votes, to represent the parties at national and local legislatures, thus giving female politicians a better chance at getting seats.

The law initially required parties to allocate at least 30 percent of the seats they won to female candidates, as part of an affirmative action move to have more women's representation in legislative bodies.

The latest ruling is seen by many as practically erasing any chance of women winning seats, because most female candidates are not as well-known as their male counterparts.

Riniti said female candidates must build up a solidarity to rescue any chances at women winning seats, which she said were "thinning out, or even closing up" due to the ruling.

"If we use boxing terms, (the elections) are like a fight between a heavyweight and a featherweight, because the women will lose no matter which side you look at it from," she said.

"Female candidates are still weak in terms of our networking, funding and time needed to raise our public profiles."

She said she hoped the meeting could galvanize support to at least improve on the outcome of the 2004 elections, when women won only 4.6 percent of seats in the Bali provincial legislature, and less than 1 percent in regency and municipal councils.

"There's not even a single woman in the Gianyar and Klungkung regency councils," she pointed out.

Riniti added she had targeted at least 10 percent female representation in legislative councils before the ruling, but had dropped her expectations to zero since the ruling was announced.

Women's activists at the meeting also supported the solidarity campaign, and pledged to help by hosting forums to educate the public on the female candidates' programs with the slogan "Girls for Girls".

"The potential for female voters to choose female candidates is huge. More than 50 percent of voters are females," Riniti said. "The candidates just need the right strategy and the right issues to convince voters."

Legislative candidate Ni Nyoman Sri Widani, from the Democratic Party, also criticized the ruling, saying female candidates did not have as much free time as male candidates.

"Female candidates are mostly busy with traditional and religious tasks, while the men have more time to campaign, especially during religious holidays," she said.

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