By Samantha Semoso – EMTV Online
With only one female MP in its 50 member house, Solomon Islands has one of the poorest representations of female parliamentarians in the Pacific.
In regard to that, women’s advocacy groups say they want to present a case for reserved seats for women in parliament to the country’s MPs during next week’s sitting.
Director of Vois Bilong Mere Solomon, Josephine Teakeni, has just returned from the Pacific Regional Conference on Strengthening Women’s Participation in Parliaments which was organised by UNDP in Port Moresby.
Teakeni says this is a strong case for having temporary special measures in place to help bridge the gap and that the Solomon Islands is far behind many other countries when it comes to women’s representation in parliament.
“We have planned to come back now after our meeting to have our first audience with our members of parliament. I also think this would help them understand a bit more should there be a debate in parliament and they would know what type of TSM (Temporary Special Measures) we are talking about,” says Teakeni.
UNDP figures state that the Pacific island legislatures have some of the world’s lowest numbers of women among their elected representatives.
As of July 2015, women legislators across the Pacific accounted for just 5.4 per cent of all government members.
