Women Political Rights Advocacy Group Meets the Speaker of Meshrano Jirga

Women political rights advocacy group convened a session on June 11th with speaker of Meshrano Jirga (Fazel Hadi Muslimyar) to present the proposal of the group on the Elections Law. The proposal contains a set of recommendations developed by the Advocacy Group on women related clauses of the Law and was presented to media on April 6th, 2013. Despite inexhaustible lobbying at the Wolesi Jirga, the MPs didn’t take any of the recommendations that would help enhance women’s participation in elections into their consideration. Since the Elections Laws is debated in Mishrano Jirga, the Group didn’t let the chance slip away and referred the proposal to the Senate. Mr. Muslimyar reviewed the proposal and specifically pointed out the division of electoral constituencies in the elections of Wolesi Jirga and provincial councils and said, “I agree with having a number of constituencies within one province, however in order to maintain the quota system for women each province must act as one single constituency for women”. This recommendation is also included in WPRAG’s proposal. At the end of the session, Mr. Muslimyar promised to have the proposal of the group reviewed by the Legislative Committee of Meshrano Jirga and urged the head of the Committee, who was also present at the meeting, to consider the proposal while discussing the electoral draft-law. He added, “Meshrano Jirga will try its best to strengthen the role of women in elections by inserting special measures in the Elections Law”.