There is gender inequity on lists of candidates and in TV appearances, report

19.11.2014 15:32
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Though the women represent over 30% of the candidates for MP written on the lists of the parties running in the November 30 elections, they occupy mainly the last positions on the list. The gender inequality is also evident in the appearances on TV, say authors of a report that was presented by the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections and the Partnership for Development Center.

In a news conference at IPN, Alexei Buzu, executive director of the Partnership for Development Center, said that the number of women included in the lists of candidates this year is the highest. It rose from 16% in 1998 to 31% now.

The women on the list of the Sociopolitical Movement “Ravnopravie” represent over 54% of the candidates, of the “Democratia Acasa” Party – almost 50%, of the Green Ecologist Party – almost 43%. The People’s Force Party has only 16.5% of women candidates, the Electoral Block “Moldova’s Choice – the Customs Union” – 18.5%, while the Centrist Union of Moldova – almost 19%.

Most of the women are placed in the second half of the list of candidates, over 40% of the women candidates are on the 61st-70th positions. Of the 1,861 candidates for MP, 577 are women. Alexei Buzu said that only 54 of the 577 women candidates are among the top ten candidates on the list, while another 54 are on the 11th-20th positions.

Alexei Buzu considers that if the parties were democratic, the lists of candidates would contain more women and more young people. Today the recourses of these categories of people are not explored.

The director of the Partnership for Development Center highlighted a vicious circle – there are few women who can be included in the lists because they are not shown on TV or are not shown on TV because they are not included in the lists.

Sociologist Vasile Cantarji, who analyzed the presence of women on 16 TV channels, ascertained that between October 28 and November 9, the women appeared in 35% of the electoral video clips, while the men in almost 80% of such video clips. The situation as regards the news items is the same. Even if the news is produced according to the preferences of the editorial staff, not parties, the women also appear in 35% of the news items, while the men in 80%.

Vasile Cantarji noted that they also analyzed five electoral debates on the public TV channels and 24 talk-shows at other channels in the period between November 3 and 7. Only two woman and 13 men attended the debates, while the talk-shows involved 8 women and 129 men.