WOMEN TAKE NEARLY HALF OF RWANDAN STATE SEATS
By Alexander G Higgins

October 23 2003 – (AP) Rwanda's historic elections sent the world's highest share of women to parliament, knocking long-time champion Sweden from the top spot, the Inter-Parliamentary Union said on Wednesday. Rwanda's women now occupy 48,8 percent of the seats.

"The country has come the closest to reaching parity between men and women of any national parliament," said the organisation that links national parliaments around the world.

Women won 39 seats in the 80-seat Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, in voting that began September 30, the union said. Twenty-four of the seats were reserved for women, and they also won 15 of the non-reserved seats.

'Rwandan women are enthusiastic about the political process'Sweden's women hold 45,3 percent in the country's single-chamber parliament, the union said. Denmark is third with 38 percent, followed by Finland 37,5 percent, the Netherlands 36,7 percent, Norway 36,4, Cuba 36, Belgium 35,3, Costa Rica 35,1 and Austria 33,9.

Germany is in 11th place at 32,2 percent, Britain in 50th at 17,9 percent, and the United States House of Representatives is tied for 60th with Andorra's single chamber legislature at 14,3 percent. France is in 66th place at 12,2 percent.

"The world average of women's participation in politics is now 15,2 percent, one of the highest ever reached," the union said.

Rwanda's vote was the first multiparty legislative election in the central African nation, which gained its independence from Belgium in 1962 and was mostly run as a one-party state after that. The country is still recovering from the 1994 genocide that killed more than half a million ethnic Tutsis and moderates from the Hutu majority.

Previously, Rwandan women held 25,7 percent of the seats.

In separate voting for the 26-seat Senate, Rwandan women filled only the six seats, or 30 percent, allotted to them by the constitution, the parliamentary union said.

The union said it had been working with Rwandans to assure that the constitution made many provisions guaranteeing minimum participation by women in politics.

"While there is no conclusive explanation for the large number of women elected to parliament, it is clear that the constitutional allocation of seats to women was a contributing factor," it said. "It is also clear that Rwandan women are enthusiastic about the political process and keen to be party to it."

Anders B Johnsson, secretary-general of the union, said it was too soon to tell what the impact would be on Rwandan politics.

"The success of women in politics in the Nordic countries, for example, has long been attributed to a culture which fundamentally values the equality of women in all sectors of society, be it in the world of paid work, schools and universities, or at home," Johnsson said.

For more information visit the website: www.ipu.org - Sapa-AP

From: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=qw1066893841285B265&set_id=1