I disagree with Minority leader’s call for more seats for women - NDC MP

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Krachi West, Helen Adjoa Ntoso, has disagreed with the suggestion by her Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu for the seats in parliament to be increased by 25 and reserved for only women.

The Minority leader has proposed an increase in the parliamentary seats from 275 to 300, with a reserved number of 25 seats for women.

According to him, the extra 25 seats should reflect the size and strength of the political parties in Parliament and will help encourage women empowerment in the country.

But the former Volta regional minister has disagreed on grounds that the proposal is not the best and could be challenged in court by interested parties.

She also indicated the number of seats occupied by women may even reduce after 2020 because women have not been protected to maintain their seats.

In her view, the seats for women we currently have not been protected and so why increase the seats and reserve it for women when you have not protected the few they have?

Currently, there are 37 women MPs in Ghana’s parliament.

Madam Ntoso said although the global sustainable goals (Goal 5) champions gender equity, Ghana lacks in that regard due to the policies we run in Ghana.

She encouraged political parties to have the political will in preventing men from contesting seats or constituencies where women are contesting.

The Tamale South MP, Haruna Iddrisu made this suggestion as part of deliberations on women in politics in parliament.

“Today, we have 275 seats in Ghana’s Parliament. We can decide that we want to add an additional 25 and dedicate it to only women and decide that, that 25 reflects the size and strength of the political parties in Parliament,” he said.

But reacting to the suggestion made the Minority leader, the Minority MP said: ‘’if he is calling for an increase and calling for it to be reserved for women, people are going to complain and challenge the idea. People will even go to court and challenge it legally. People will not agree to that. The political parties should do something about it.

‘’We have to start from somewhere. We have 275 seats and yet we are not doing something to protect the few seats women have and we rather calling for more seats. The politicians and political parties should be gender advocates,’’ she added.

She called for education on the need for encouraging women to contest because they are people who are against women being elected or appointed for key positions.

‘’People advocating for gender equity should intensify their advocacy and campaigns in order to help get more women elected.’’

She concluded by stressing that ‘’I wouldn’t be surprised if women in parliament lose their seats. If we are talking about equity, we should also protect what we have today before we talk about increase.’’