Women in UE strategize to capture more seats

2014 District Assembly Election-Women in UE strategize to capture more seats

The Past and Present Assembly Women Association(PPAWA) drawn from all the

Districts from the Upper East Region on Tuesday at a capacity building training

workshop adopted number of strategies to enable them win more seats come, the 2014

District Assembly Election.

The Programme which was organized by the Regional Inter-Sectoral Gender

Network(RISEGNET) and sponsored by Ibis Ghana was aimed at building the capacity of

women and women’s networks and coalitions at the District levels to enable them win

more seats in the upcoming District Assembly Election.

In speech read for her, the President of PPAWA, Madam Agnes Atayella expressed

regret about the low representation of women at the Assemblies level and said this

time they were not going left any stone unturned in winning more seats .

She said among some of the strategies they would embark upon would include

working to support their aspiring colleague Assembly women who would be

contesting in the upcoming District Assembly Election.

She said they would also educate their colleagues’ women not to compete together

by contesting one another but to come into compromise to support only one candidate

to stand for the election.

The PPAWA also agreed together that they would encourage their husbands who

refused their wives to stand for election to reconsider their decisions by allowing

them to contest for election.

The Chairman of RISEGNET, Mr Daud James Abang-Gos said his outfit with support

from Ibis Ghana would implement lot of activities aimed at building the capacity

of PPAWA members before the year’s ends to empower them win more seats.

He mentioned more programmes in the area of community mobilization, advocacy and

networks, Radio Programmes, engagement of the ruling government on its policies and

manifestoes towards women, follow up traditional leaders to ensure that they follow

their commitment of supporting more women to contest for elections and as well as

eliminating certain negative cultures that inhibited women from participating in

politics.

A Gender Development Officer from the Community Development, Madam Victoria took

the participants through Community Mobilization Skills, Characteristics of

Community, and Barriers to Community Entry and Mobilization, Advocacy Concepts,

Tools and Strategies and among others.

She impressed upon the women to be bold and confidence when contesting for any

election and said it was of the surest ways of winning elections.