Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi
PETALING JAYA: There are 71 women from across all political parties running in the six state elections, which falls short of the 30% target for women’s involvement in political and public life.
The 71 women, out of a total of 570 candidates, will be contesting in Negri Sembilan, Selangor, Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu in the elections on Aug 12.
This means women make up only 12.41% of the total candidates fielded for the 245 seats.
Pakatan Harapan has the most female candidates, with 26 out of a total of 138, while Barisan Nasional has 12 women out of its 108 candidates. Perikatan Nasional has only 19 women out of its total of 245 candidates.
Muda has the largest proportion of female candidates, fielding 10 women out of its 19 candidates, and also the youngest candidate, 23-year-old Melanie Ting.
The 15th General Election (GE15) in November last year saw 127 women candidates contesting parliamentary seats and 60 vying for state seats in Perlis, Perak and Pahang, including the Bugaya by-election in Sabah.
Universiti Malaya associate professor Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi said political parties are looking at candidates who can win instead of filling the quota for women.
“It is as if they (coalitions) are obsessed with winning, so they miss the opportunity to field more female candidates who are qualified.
“So (women) are again left out,” he said when contacted.
Awang Azman said the women’s wings in political parties should have been more vocal about the lack of female representation in the state polls.
Universiti Sains Malaysia political scientist Prof Dr Sivamurugan Pandian said Pakatan and Perikatan should have fielded more female candidates.
“With more female candidates, the coalitions would have shown that they had extended the role of women and taken them out of their traditional roles of being behind the scenes to win support,” he said when contacted recently.
He added that parties may have their reasons for selecting a candidate, but it seemed to have been done based on political hierarchy.
“It is a pity that women candidates were left out, as they could have added value owing to the fact that 51% of voters are women,” he said.
Bersatu, for example, is fielding its women leaders in Selangor, such as Bersatu Srikandi chief Datuk Seri Rina Mohd Harun, who is also a former women, family and community development minister, in Batu Tiga.
She will be facing Muda candidate Saiyidah Izzati Nur Razak Maideen and Pakatan’s Danial Al-Rashid Haron Aminar Rashid.
According to Bersatu Srikandi deputy chief Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, the women’s wing has done all it can to push the Perikatan coalition for more female candidates.
“This time, the coalition is fielding 19 women candidates from Bersatu, PAS and Gerakan in the 245 seats we are contesting.
“We are happy that we have more seats when compared with GE15, but there is still dissatisfaction over the number,” she said.
Mas Ermieyati also called for a stop to “bullying” women candidates, such as by placing them in challenging seats that would be hard to win, just for the sake of filling the 30% quota.
Perikatan fielded 16 women from among its 149 candidates in GE15.
In view of the lack of female candidates in the state polls, Women Leadership Foundation chairman Datuk Hafsah Hashim calls for stricter guidelines and monitoring mechanisms to be implemented to ensure gender representation principles are upheld, providing equal opportunities to women.
“Valuable insights can be drawn from Indonesia’s effective use of a mandatory quota, requiring each political party to field at least 30% female parliamentary candidates in an electoral district, with disqualification a consequence for non-compliance,” she said.
