Women in Politics
Friday 26th October 2007

Politics is an activity that at least every individual should have an interest in, be it a man or woman. Whether you have your party or not, it is a civic duty for every citizen to be involved in it. Usually in Africa only men get fully involved in politics, but these days things have changed because many women are educated and feel obligated to participate. There are lots of examples of women involvement in politics :we have a woman president in Liberia, woman vice president, national assembly speaker, ministers, parliamentarians, etc, in The Gambia. As the Local Government election is fast approaching many women in The Gambia are preparing to take part.  

SHE SHE spoke to the program coordinator of GAMCOTRAP, Amie Bojang Sissoho, about the sensitization program on women’s political participation in governance, in which she pointed out some important things about women’s participation in politics and the role her institution plays in sensitizing women about politics.  

According to her, they have been working on sensitization programmes on women’s participation in local governance, and it was through consultative meetings, she said, that it was realized how women can participate effectively in politics. From these meetings some of the women expressed their interest to be political aspirants. “It is in this light that we are embarking on media campaigns and community output programmes for the public to give support to women by voting them in.”

Mrs. Sissoho noted that at the moment GAMCOTRAP is calling on political parties to give consideration to women as candidates in their individual parties. No matter what political party a woman belongs to, she can stand as a candidate, she asserted. She however disclosed that, it has been reported at the consultation workshop they had, that nominating women within their parties represents crossing the first barrier only; the other barrier she continued is the socio-cultural barrier of being a woman and contesting an election; “however it was noted that the barrier has been broken by the election of women like Nyimasata Sanneh Bojang, first female parliamentarian, Aji Haddy Panneh, lady Alkalo (village head) of Njawara etc”.

Mrs. Sissoho however urged the political parties to nominate women for the upcoming local government election because one of the criteria for nomination she noted is to be a secondary school leaver, and many women do satisfy that requirement. “There cannot be any excuse that the political parties cannot find a woman to be a candidate within its ranks. I will finally thank the Open Society Initiatives of West Africa for supporting Gamcotrap to embark on the sensitization of women for political participation in governance; and to the public , we say give women a chance by voting them in. We the electorate can set the example by electing many women into the area council”.