Somali women leaders urge Parliament to pass electoral bill for a 30 percent quota on women representation

MOGADISHU, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Somali women leaders have called on lawmakers to approve a pending electoral reform bill that would enshrine the principle of a 30 percent gender quota in future national legislatures. Speaking at a roundtable forum which brought together more than 30 women representing parliament, civil society, the National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC), diaspora communities, political parties and academia, the women also reviewed the challenges still facing them as they prepare for one-person, one-vote elections scheduled to take place in 2020. "The electoral law which provides for the 30 percent quota on women representation has not been passed, and it is our hope that it is passed by both the House of the People and the Senate and the draft constitution will also be amended to reflect that," Asha Abdulle Siyad, chairperson of the Somali Women's Leadership Initiative, said according to a statement issued by the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) on Sunday evening.
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