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Women's Link asks for 25% quota

"Men, who control most of the resources in political parties, are rarely willing to share resources with women."

Sue Huang, chairwoman of Taiwan Women's Link

Women's activists yesterday called for a quota of 25 percent for women legislative candidates under the proportional representation mechanism to be adopted when the government reforms the system for electing legislators.

They said political parties should increase the number of female legislative candidates, whom they praised as more talented than their male colleagues.

Taiwan Women's Link, an Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) which is part of the 1130 Female Voters Action Alliance, proposed that the "single-member district, dual vote" electoral system that the government plans to introduce should incorporate a quota mechanism to guarantee that women continue to be elected.

The alliance was set up in the run-up to the elections to promote women's involvement in politics.

The government plans to abandon the multi-member district, single non-transferable vote system currently used for electing legislators, which demands that one out of four legislators from each constituency be a woman. Under this system the voter may only cast one vote, but most constituencies are represented by several legislators.

This quota would no longer exist under the proposed system because a constituency could only be represented by one legislator.

Under the new system, the finer points of which are yet to be made public, voters would have two votes, one for a named candidate in the voter's constituency and the other for a political party.

Certain legislative seats would be set aside for candidates on party lists according to the proportion of votes secured by the party

The alliance proposes that 25 percent of candidates on party lists for such seats be women.

"Moreover, men and women should be listed alternately to ensure that at least 25 percent of legislators-at-large are women," said the activists.

The quota for women will be important, the alliance argued, because a woman is unlikely to win in a single-member constituency due to the traditional prejudices of many voters, who believe that a woman's primary responsibility is caring for the family."

Female candidates won only 13.2 percent of the vote in Saturday's legislative election, according to the alliance.

Sue Huang (黃淑英), chairwoman of Taiwan Women's Link, an NGO which is part of the alliance, stressed the disadvantages faced by women in politics.

"Men, who control most of the resources in political parties, are rarely willing to share resources with women," she said.

This year only 18.2 percent of legislative candidates were women, slightly higher than the 17.2 percent in the previous legislative election in 1998.

"We've found that it's very difficult for a woman to win a nomination by a party unless she has powerful support from a large [well-connected] family, is well-known in her own right and has a political track record. Otherwise she will be considered incapable of winning the election," said Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青), secretary-general of the women's league.

"But male candidates are not required to have such strong credentials," said Hsu.

In Saturday's legislative election, 39 of the 83 female candidates, or 46.98 percent, won a legislative seat, while only 36.72 percent of male candidates did so.

The alliance said the higher percentage of successful female candidates reflected the superior talents of most of the women candidates.
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