Lesotho: Women representation in parliament set to decrease as 5050 by 2015 deadline looms

While women remain close to parity with 49.1% representation in local councils, the national elections may have seen a decrease in women’s representation in governance structures at the national level.

Women and men contested for parliamentary seats in on May 26 but results are still to be published because parties are yet to finalise the allocation of seats.

Lesotho Gender activist and Barometer researcher Matseliso Mapetla said the party lists were very disappointing and the country is likely to have less than 10% women in parliament.

“According to the party lists that were released both parties fielded only 20% women which is way below the 50% target of the SADC Gender Protocol,” Mapetla told Gender Links in a telephone interview. She also bemoaned the death of the women’s movement as more women are shying away from politics. She said unlike in previous years when public education and awareness was more visible, there were not many initiatives conducted this year to get more women to contest which resulted in the ruling party and the opposition party fielding 15 and 16 women respectively of the 80 contested seats.

In April, the Lesotho IEC Chief Technical Officer who is also Gender Links board member RithabilePholo attributed the decline in the women’s representation to lack of independence within the home.

“Women in Lesotho still have to ask for permission from their husbands to play their role in society as female leaders. In turn, men continue to take advantage by denying them that opportunity. It is evident that Lesotho has a long way to go to impart knowledge at the grassroots level where women are,” the IEC Chief Technical Officer added.

“If all women are empowered and an enabling environment is created for them to participate on an equal footing with men, then women will contest.”

This means Lesotho will not meet the 50% women in all decision-making positions by 2015 at the parliamentary level. This country has a formula that works at local level. In the future activists will work to lobby for electoral report so that what applies at the local level should apply at the national level.

Click here read Gender Links’ report: Getting the balance right: Gender in the 2011 Lesotho local government election