Statement of the Task Force for Women’s Political Participation
We issue this statement in reaction to the Georgian Dream’s list of mayoral candidates. There are 61 candidates in total on the list, only two of which are women.
Women representation in local self-government is extremely low (no more than 12%), and none of the mayors are female, while only 1 out of 59 directly elected Gamgebelis is a woman.
The government and the ruling party are especially responsible for increasing women’s participation in politics. The fact that parties tend to nominate extremely low number of women as mayoral candidates is alarming and proves that parties disregard public demand about equal participation of women and men in political, social and economic processes in the country. This also means that the state is failing to live up to its international commitments, jeopardizing democratic development of the state.
We urge all political parties to consider the importance of women’s participation in politics before they register candidates and party lists, and submit gender-balanced lists for the 2017 local self-government elections, ensuring equal participation of both sexes in the elections.