Aurat Foundation launches campaign to facilitate women participation in local government election

The Aurat Foundation has launched the Citizen Campaign for Women Representation (CCWR)-2005 in all the 110 districts of the country to facilitate women participation in the electoral process. This was stated by Suleman Abid, National Co-ordinator for the campaign, while speaking at a meeting at the Documentation and Resource Center of the Aurat Foundation here on Sunday. "The number of union councils at present stands at 6022 and we will cover all," said the Lahore-based newsman who is an expert on Local Government system and has to his credit three books and a myriad of papers on the subject.
He said women accounted for 48 percent of our population and their representation in all the decision-making bodies, including Local Government institutions would ensure national development.
Divulging the details of nation-wide campaign, he said the Aurat Foundation had a strong network of activists/partner organisations throughout the country that had expanded over the time. "This has encouraged us to take the challenge and launch the campaign for women representation in the local government system in all the districts", Suleman said, adding the Local Government institutions strengthening would ultimately bolster up democracy at the higher tiers.
The CCWR national co-ordinator said women would readily contest polls if a proper support mechanism was made available to them.
"It is the primary responsibility of the state, but not enough is being done towards that end; thus forcing the civil society to move forward to help the state with facilitation", he added. Suleman said the Aurat Foundation would take notice of the election-related issues during the campaign such as obstacles to women participation in polls and take up the same with district, provincial and federal governments in an effort to get them resolved.
He said an elaborate plan had been chalked out to build the capacity of the women candidates, making them learn how to launch and run the poll campaign because a considerable number of them might be the fresh contenders.
"The knowledge of incumbent councillors will also be enhanced because the information they have needs to be improved. The fresh material will be distributed for awareness raising and voter education. The amendments made to the Local Government system so far will be brought into fine print for dissemination to potential candidates", he added.
Of the campaign duration, Suleman said it would run for one year. "We have launched the campaign in February 2005. The electoral process will be completed in phases (July-August) that would be followed by documentation of the entire exercise. Dwelling on the campaign activities, he said the Aurat Foundation existing networks in the districts were being further organised by forming the District Co-ordination Committees (DCCs) that have a cross-section of people.
He said: "Though the Training of Trainers (TOT), we will train activists, mostly women, who would, in turn, guide the women candidates."
The CCWR national co-ordinator said women would be mobilised for taking part in polls. "The present women councillors will be motivated to contest again, along with preparing the fresh cadre. The mobilisation will not be confined to women alone. The political parties and communities will also be included in the process to win over their support for women mobilisation".
The CCWR national co-ordinator was upbeat about the women participation in the coming polls.
He said: "The women seats filling-out ratio in the last Local Government polls and by-polls have been from 90 to 95 percent.
The last time, 68,000 women contested the Local Government polls and 40,000 got elected. This time we expect a higher tally of candidates - 75,000 plus because political and religious parties are involved in the process.
The number of civil society members was limited during the last elections has swelled at present as big stakeholders".