Political parties do not trust women with municipal leadership

Representatives of nongovernmental organisations dealing with protecting women's rights say the reason for women's failure to run is the lack of political will of party leadership to place female candidates on their lists.

The space women have in political parties, they say, is used only for numbers and not for high positions.

Life Krasniqi, project manager at the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), tells Radio Free Europe that the trend of women's running for mayors in all local elections has been low, including the October 22nd elections.

That, according to her, shows that women in political parties do not have enough space.

We see that political parties, only when there are legal quotas, apply quotas and propose women as part of decision-making, both at the central legislative and municipal level. But this does not happen even when there is no affirmative measure. So, political parties do not have a real strategy that they want to see women as an equal part of decision making”, Krasniqi says.

Luljeta Demolli, from the Kosovar Centre for Gender Studies, also says the number of female mayoral candidates is very small. According to her, even laws in power are not being respected.

“Nori is very small, we've expected a greater number, however, from parties that have greater electoral. And let us not forget that in the June 11th parliamentary general elections, only 35 percent of women have voted. If the number of women candidates in the election does not increase, both at the local level and at the central level, there may be a decline in women's voter turnout”, Demolli says.

Otherwise, according to the law in power, males and females should have equal rights and equal opportunities for full participation in all aspects and levels of political processes.

Even in the Law on Gender Equality, political parties with their actions are said to be obliged to implement measures to promote equal participation of male and female bodies and parties.

But, Life Krasniqi says political parties should be democratised, at the same time women themselves should be more persistent to be involved in decision-making processes.

“Political parties must democratise and create more space within them for women, as a small number of women have either party leader or party subservations. At the same time women must be more insistent, persistent, to take their place at the table and create space even within political parties”, Krasniqi considers.

Of the parliamentary parties, the Vetevendosje Movement, there are no female candidates for mayoral municipalities, as well as the Democratic League of Kosovo.

In contrast, the Democratic Party of Kosovo is running three women in local elections -- the Alliance for the Future with a candidate -- with the same number the Initiative for Kosovo and Alternatives.