Women activists also don´t find any reason to be encouraged as they go through the list of candidates proposed by the major political parties last week under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system. [break]
"As we go through the political parties´ list of women candidates under the FPTP electoral system and their competitors in the constituencies concerned, it clearly indicates that many of the women candidates are likely to be defeated," former CPN-UML lawmaker Radha Gyawali, who also heads the Inter-party Women´s Network, told Republica. "It is because the parties have named the women candidates just to meet the requirements of the election laws."
As per the election laws, each political party must elect at least 33 percent women of the total seats won. Most of the political parties prefer to nominate women lawmakers under the Proportional Representation (PR) quota to meet the legal requirement. Women activists however demand that the political parties should create necessary ground to make sure that the women candidates win under the FPTP electoral system.
"Some of the women candidates proposed this time are very strong and they are likely to win the elections. But political parties have proposed some other names just for formality," said Gyawali.
Nepali Congress (NC)´s selection of Pratima Gautam as candidate alongside former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal for Kathmandu-2 and CPN-UML´s nomination of Bidya Neupane alongside NC General Secretary Prakash Man Singh for Kathmandu-1 substantiate Gyawali´s argument.
She said that some of the strong women candidates were likely to lose the elections because the parties have fielded these women candidates against heavyweights of major parties.
In the last 601-member CA, the number of women members was 197. Of this, 163 were nominated by parties under the PR system, 30 others were elected under FPTP system and the remaining four were nominated by the government.
Kamala Sharma of Surkhet was the only UML woman candidate to be elected under the FPTP, while Pushpa Bhusal and Suparbha Ghimire were the NC candidates to win directly from the constituencies. Feeling betrayed by not getting FPTP ticket from the NC, Ghimire not only filed her candidacy as independent but also announced that she had quit the party.
Similarly, one woman candidate each from the Madhesi People´s Rights Forum Nepal and the Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party won the elections under the FPTP in 2008. All other 24 women to win the elections under the FPTP system were from the UCPN (Maoist).
This time around, UML leader Gyawali sees less chances of women candidates from UCPN (Maoist) party winning as many of the influential women Maoist leaders have defected to the CPN-Maoist, which has boycotted the elections.
Former Maoist women lawmakers, who were elected under FPTP system, including Pampha Bhusal, Jaypuri Gharti Magar and Amrita Thapa have joined the CPN-Maoist.
Some of the women activists including Gyawali also argue that chances of women winning under FPTP system would increase if there is less rigging in the elections.
Woman activist Manchala Jha said while there is a need for allocating some of the constituencies for competition only among women candidates for some years, major political parties were nominating women candidates just for formality.
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