Women's representation

Proportional allocation of reserved seats is better than allowing a ruling party to turn even a slight majority in parliament into a commanding majority through the addition of 30 female MPs of its choice. There remain, however, problems with the proposed changes which, by and large, merely serve to perpetuate the existing system. The first problem with the system of reserved seats is that it has signally failed to have any real impact in terms of policy formulation or the advancement of women's issues. The system has failed to produce the leadership among the country's female population that was anticipated. This alone should be grounds for rethinking.

A further deficiency of the current system is that it is antithetical to constituency based representation as envisaged by the Constitution, and does not allow for the voters to play any role in the selection of these representatives.

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A sounder approach would be to have these reserved seats directly elected by the voters. This would allow the voters to exercise their constitutional right to elect their representatives, empower the women MPs and make them accountable to their constituencies. This would in turn improve the quality of the female representation and be more likely to produce effective leadership than the current system in which the selected female MPs are answerable and beholden only to their own party.

In any case, a national consensus will have to be forged on an issue of such vital importance to democracy by involving all political parties and civil society leaders, including particularly the women's activist groups, in the process.