The National Commission on Violence Against Women said Monday the government should facilitate for more women to win seats in the 2014 legislative election.
The commission's head of subcommission research and education, Neng Dara Affifah, said the revoking from the 2008 election law of the quota of 30-percent of seats for women at the House of Representatives by the Constitutional Court would reduce the chances of women achieving leadership positions in parliament.
Instead of accepting women's affirmative rights and the quota, the court that reviewed the law decided that only candidates that won the most votes would occupy seats, with no regard to their gender or ethnicity.
"If the Court implements the same electoral procedure for the 2014 legislative election, women should *begin campaigning* now to win a larger portion of House seats in the next five-year tenure of government," Neng told The Jakarta Post over the phone.
The National Development Planning Agency said female candidates won 18 percent of 560 contested seats in the April legislative election.
The agency said that percentage had increased by more than 6 percent from 11.6 percent in the 2004 legislative election.
The increase did not represent gender equality in the legislature, Neng said, because the House did not seem to support women empowerment.
She said gender equality could be achieved only if women achieved 50 percent of total House seats.
Member of the Commission Sri Wiyanti Eddyono said the government had not done enough to prepare girls and women for politics.
The government had not prioritized women's empowerment programs in regions across the archipelago, she said.
Sri added the government should continuously support training and education for women by coordinating with related minis-tries, like the Education Ministry and the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment and Child Protection.
"Training for women is mostly associated with domestic issues, like the provision of nutrition training in community health centers," she said.
"However, we can hardly find training in politics," she said, adding the government should initiate similar programs.
Neng said the State Ministry for Womens Empowerment should break through cultural issues and bring the role of women to the fore. (nia)
