The Convener for Women’s Manifesto Coalition and a member of Abantu for Development, Hamida Harrison, has accused political parties of contributing to the low participation of women in politics.
Hamida attributed her statement to the monetization of political activities, clarifying that this trend hinders women’s involvement in politics due to financial constraints.
Speaking at the Intergenerational Dialogue/Youth Forum on the Passage of the Affirmative Action Bill in Accra, the advocate called for political parties to check this trend.
She stated, “The imagining issues are more troubling in the sense that it has become so expensive to stand for a political position in a political party and women don’t have that kind of money to go and spend on standing for a position that probably you might not win when they have families to look after. So that imagined aspect of our politics is also very very troubling in the promotion of gender equality in political parties and political parties need to look at that.”
Hamida noted that despite some efforts in advocacy aimed at persuading political parties to lower the filing fee for political positions, the existing fee remains prohibitively high.
“I remember we did some advocacy and political parties reduced the filing fees for women but still that is very expensive for others,” she said.
In 2023, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) announced that the contestants for the parliamentary primaries were expected to pay GH¢70,000 and GH¢3,000 as filing fees and nomination fees respectively.
In the same year, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) fixed the filing fee for its presidential primary at GH¢400,000.
The parliamentary primary fee was also pegged at GH¢40,000.
Furthermore, the cost for nomination forms for the presidential and parliamentary primaries were GH¢30,000 and GH¢5,000, respectively.
—–
Explore the world of impactful news with CitiNewsroom on WhatsApp!
Click on the link to join the Citi Newsroom channel for curated, meaningful stories tailored just for YOU: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaCYzPRAYlUPudDDe53x
No spams, just the stories that truly matter! #StayInformed #CitiNewsroom #CNRDigital
