Gender parity elusive as Lesotho votes

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as seen more women participating in the National Assembly elections with a total of 409 women or 31% of all candidates for all the 80 constituencies.

This represents an increase of about 21% from a total of 337 women candidates in 2015. However despite this welcome increase in the proportion of women candidates in the Lesotho elections last week , gender parity in parliament is still elusive.

The district of Qacha’s Nek has the highest percentage of women candidates at 42% while Berea has the lowest at 22%. The voting system incorporates affirmative action as the Proportional Representation (PR) list is generated using the zebra system with male and female alternations. Despite this, the women who get elected are less than the set minimum of 30%. It is important to note that women comprise the majority of voters at 56%.Read more here