Accra, April, Ghanadot - Nana Oye Lithur,a women's rights
activist has expressed her displeasure about the low number of
women appointed by the President to the position of
Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executive (MMDCE).
IN her article titled 'Appointment to district assemblies', she
noted, women's rights activists in the country were blinded by
the President nomination of female Speaker of Parliament, female
Attorney General and Minister of Justice and the first female
acting Inspector General of Police.
"We trusted the President and believed he would sustain his
commitment to the NDC manifesto which aims at 40 per cent female
representation in public office but the case is different", she
said.
According to Nana Oye Lithur, women have become more interested
in politics and are offering themselves for public office. She
said, records from national summary for the district level
elections from the Electoral Commission showed a significant
increase in the number of women candidates filing for district
assembly elections since the year 1996.
"In 1996, 14,673 males filed for district elections as against
547 women. This increased to 983 females as against 13,266 male
candidates in 2002", she revealed.
Nana Oye Lithur observed that, women have to be encouraged and
one effective way of encouraging them was to appoint more of
them at the district level, saying, the less than 10 female DCEs
appointed by the President was not encouraging.
The appointment of more women she noted would have facilitated
visibility in local government and create more role models at
the community level,adding, it is President Mills's missed
opportunity.
She has however called on the President to stick to his campaign
promise of appointing 40 per cent of women to work in public
office.
Ghanadot
