FIDA calls on political parties to select women running mates

FIDA Ghana says there are compelling reasons why women must be involved in governance structures, politics and parliament.

Below is statement from FIDA Ghana advocating for political parties to select women as running mates and support the election of more women and help increase women representation in Parliament 

If women must increase their numbers in parliament, then political parties must nominate and support female candidates for office, giving them vital roles in serving as gatekeepers to elections.

Ghana has organised seven successful elections since 1992. However, women’s share of parliamentarians in all these elections has always been below the African average of 21 per cent and far less than the UN-recommended 40 per cent minimum threshold. Even in the District Level Elections, Data from the Alliance for Women in the Media stated that females elected as assembly members are less than five per cent. 

Fortunately, the “so-called” smaller parties such as the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) which selected two women, the late Eva Lokko, in 2012 and Ms Bridget Dzogbenuku in 2016, as running mates, have been models of more inclusiveness in the selection of running mates.

The Convention People’s Party (CPP) also elected Nana Akosua Frimpomaa<\a>Sarpong II as its running mate in 2012.   

FIDA-Ghana is not suggesting that women should always be relegated to running mates. However, it is important to start this inclusive process because the ultimate is to see a female presidential nominee of a political party voted as president, as witnessed in other countries such as Tanzania and Ethiopia. 

The selection process of female candidates is through the political parties and until recently, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), in 2020, also elected its first female running mate, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman. This leaves the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) trailing as it has yet to elect a female running mate.

Local and international policies

Both global and national legal requirements are clear on the rights of women to participate in elections on an equal level as their male colleagues. It is a shame that after 66 years of independence, Ghana has had no woman vice president.

Any political party that shows little inclination to nominate running mates as women and support their female candidates sends signals that they have a male-oriented party culture which is undemocratic and exclusive, favouring male participation.  

Such a culture ignores women’s rights to fully participate in politics. Additionally, any culture that asks female candidates to step down for more "successful" male candidates perceived by the leadership of political parties as a "safe" candidate over the female candidate clearly contravenes the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Five, which calls for gender equality. 

The SDG Goal Five further states that women’s equality and empowerment is one of the 17 sustainable goals, which is also integral to all dimensions of inclusive and sustainable development. Gender parity in politics is, therefore, essential to the progressive development of all women and girls.

As Ghana prepares for its ninth election, FIDA advocates that all political parties should consider the selection of women as their running mates. This will ensure that at least whichever political party wins the elections, its vice president will be a woman. 

The Affirmative Action (AA) bill is one of the most compelling legislation to promote women’s participation in politics and public life and could have facilitated a strong advocacy campaign persuading political parties to adopt measures to remove obstacles to the full participation of women in both the party machinery and the contest for elections. In the absence of this bill, Ghana is a signatory to countless international conventions, including the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Maputo Protocol, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

Problems/Challenges

With two hundred and thirty-five (235) men in parliament and only forty (40) female members (14.5 per cent), the 2024 elections must change the current narrative. Ghana’s ranking of 145th in terms of women’s representation in parliament by the interparliamentary union is abysmal, considering the work that women’s rights activists have done for over two decades. 

As far back as 2004, the women’s manifesto for development, led by Abantu with support from other women’s rights groups, called for equal female participation in government structures. A review of the women’s manifesto ten years after it was developed in 2014 indicated that Ghana had made little progress in female representation in parliament and other governance structures. Women’s equal participation in decision-making is, therefore, not only a demand for simple justice or democracy but a necessary pre-condition for women’s interests to be taken into account. 

How Party mechanisms can increase women’s participation in the 2024 elections

The rising cost of political campaigns and the monetisation of our politics have made fundraising one of the important issues for women candidates. Political parties can play an influential role by creating special fundraising networks for women candidates. Past efforts by political parties to put positive measures such as a reduction in the filing fees for female contestants in place is a great initiative and FIDA calls for similar measures to ensure that women candidates can pay filing fees. Political parties can go beyond providing breaks in registration fees and have in place a fund-raising strategy which should be implemented as a guide for fundraising. This is particularly important within our Ghanaian context where candidates do not have access to public funding.

Enhancing the visibility of women in Political party activities

The campaign period will gain momentum in a few months, and this is the period where the leadership of political parties must commit to a policy of equality. A 50 per cent participation of both genders in all party functions is key in sending the message that women candidates are equally competent in handling governance issues, just as men. 

Therefore, in all campaign rallies and televised party activities, there must be just as many women speakers as men. Additionally, television and other media coverage heightens women candidates’ visibility and political parties must take advantage of such events to ensure that both males and females jointly chair public events, as these graphic images send powerful visual messages to voters. 

If this country wants to ensure gender parity in politics and parliament, party structures must implement gender transformative policies which are all-encompassing and democratic. Civil society groups and the media should continue to intensify their watchdog role to ensure that political parties contribute to placing Ghana among the world’s top twenty countries where women’s participation in politics has recorded between 40 to 50 per cent political participation.  

Finally, and most significantly, political parties must transform inflexible internal democratic structures ensuring that women are elected as running mates by all the political parties, for a female vice president is long overdue in this country.