The International Republican Institute (IRI) on Tuesday lamented that women now held only 3.8 per cent of seats in the 9th National Assembly in Nigeria.
Ms Elizabeth Lewis, Acting Regional Deputy Director for Africa, IRI, said this on Tuesday while briefing newsmen on the group’s final report on the 2019 elections in Abuja, NAN reports.
Lewis said this percentage made Nigeria a country with the lowest level of women’s representation in any legislature in Sub-saharan Africa.
She said it was observed that in October 2018, when political parties conducted primaries to select candidates for the 2019 general elections, many of the processes were reportedly plagued by vote-buying, rigging and confusion over location and who could participate in the process.
Lewis said that in some instances, party leadership submitted candidates’ lists to the electoral commission with nominees who had not won their primaries, adding that intra and inter party disputes led to over 800 court cases.
“In addition, opaque campaign financing and candidate-selection processes posed significant and disproportionate disadvantages for women and youth candidates for party leadership or elected office.
“While the 2019 elections saw more women and youth running for office, most were fielded by new minor parties with long odds of winning.
“Notably, APC and PDP fielded only 24 and 31 women candidates respectively for bicameral National Assembly’s 4469 seats.
“The two parties had only 13 and eight legislative candidates respectively under the age of 35; as a result, the number of women elected at the national assembly level declined.’’
Lewis said that the paucity of women and youth nominated to run on the tickets of the two major parties demonstrated Nigerian political elites’ lack of commitment to opening space for new faces and new voices.
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