Guyana maintains steady ratings of women in Parliament

May 31, 2017 News

… But Carter Center sees room for improvement, recommends representation laws

By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell

For the past 17 years, Guyana has been maintaining steady ratings when it comes to the representation of women in Parliament. In fact, it is well ahead of many developed countries on the Women in National Parliament index. However,

Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira

the Carter Center is recommending that Guyana reviews its legal framework to include laws that speak for the representation of women.
In its final report of the 2015 General and Regional Elections held in Guyana, the Carter Center said that there is need for Guyana to “re-evaluate the electoral system, considering systems that would promote support across ethnic lines and better reflect international standards.”
Giving example of the kind of reevaluation that is needed, the Carter Center noted that the present list system allows political parties to allocate seats to members of their choice after the election. This means that voters cast their ballot for the political party, not candidates. In addition, Carter Center noted that there is no requirement that political parties must allocate seats in the National Assembly to any of the female candidates from within their lists. It was recommended that Guyana “consider adjustments to its legal framework and electoral system to equalize representation of women in Parliament.”
People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira thinks that while there is room for improvement, Guyana should give itself a pat on its back. She even suggested that Carter Center should look at what is happening in its own country before commenting on the state of affairs in Guyana on this issue.
Teixeira told Kaieteur News that she has “lots to say” on the Carter Center report, but would limit her comments “for now.”
“I find it ironic that Carter Center is advocating this when the United States is low down in the line of the number of women in the Congress and in the Senate.”
Teixeira pointed to the Women in Parliament index and said that Guyana has been doing well. She said that Guyana’s Parliament has one-third female representation.
“So yes it is true that the law is not there that requires one-third women to be selected from the list. But, the quota system for Guyana requires one-third candidates and despite not having a law that requires parties to put women in Parliament we have been making the one-third.”
The Chief Whip stressed that the “US is doing extraordinary badly on women in the Congress.
At least we had one women president, they haven’t made it yet. I reserve my other comments on the Carter Center and some of the proposals they are making for another time.”
Teixeira went on to state, “because I know how things are twisted, I will say that obviously as a woman I will always want women to be more and more represented and there will be a time when the quota may be up, or the law is amended, but in terms of the political parties in Guyana.”
The Women in National Parliament index, which is maintained by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, indeed has Guyana ahead of many countries. The index was updated as recent as May 1, this year.
The data has been compiled on the basis of information provided by National Parliaments. Just about 193 countries are classified by descending order of the percentage of women in the lower or single House.
Guyana currently is rated at 38 behind countries like Rwanda, Cuba, Sweden, Mexico, South Africa, Ethiopia, Denmark, Germany, Tanzania, Netherland and New Zealand.
Guyana’s Parliament has 34 percent female occupancy.