22 reserved seats to be extended to local governments
Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:00pm
The recent Governor's Summit, that endorsed 22 reserved seats for
women in Parliament, will extend down to provincial and local
governments.
Deputy Chairman of the National Strategic Taskforce, Daniel Kapi,
says while the leaders resolved for women representation at a national
level, there are more implications:
"We will extend 22 reserved seats to the provincial and local level
governments, at all levels where we want our mothers and sisters to be
represented.
"So, this decision has a bid implication," Mr. Kapi said.
No set dates have been established, for this to happen.
Acting Chief Secretary to the Government, and Secretary for
Provincial and Local Government Affairs, Manasupe Zurenuoc, says this
is because the process is lengthy.
"We need to make major constitutional amendments. And the way
constitutional amendments work in this country, takes a fair amount of
time before it passes through Parliament.
"The proposal of 22 seats is not necessarily binding on everybody in
Parliament, so there needs to be a lot of lobbying and things going on
amongst our politicians to try and agree to this.
"It may not be only 22 seats, there might have to reach a compromise
somewhere," said Mr Zurenuoc.
Both Mr. Zurenuoc and Mr. Kapi were speaking on the Government
Talkback program. |
