Former Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies and Chairperson of Star-Ghana, Dr. Esther Ofei-Aboagye, has underscored the need for increased female representation in the forthcoming district-level elections scheduled for December 19, 2023.
She said that was because the number of female assembly members was dropping, citing the example that the number fell below five percent in the last election.
Dr. Ofei-Aboagye was speaking at a stakeholders’ forum in Accra on Thursday.
The forum was on the theme “Improving Women’s Participation in the 2023 District Level Elections: The Role of the Media.”
“Women should be at the forefront of making decisions about what assemblies engage in. If assemblies are by the constitution [responsible for] the holistic development of localities for the betterment of people who live there, then it is a platform on which women should predominate,” she said.
“However, the figures we’ve been treated to show that women constitute a minority in there. For instance, the election of assembly women has fallen, in the last election it fell below five percent in communities, and again the appointing mechanism has not reached the height that we aspire to,” Dr. Ofei-Aboagye stated.