Female MPs ask for higher representation

TIRANA, 27 October- Female MPs from South-Eastern Europe ask for a higher level of representation. They met in Tirana with the Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Robert Bosch and Albanian Assembly Speaker Jozefina Topalli where they urged their governments to adopt a electoral codes that would be formulated in such a way that a representation of at least 30 per cent of seats for women candidates will be guaranteed in all Parliaments. Participants said that democratic standards had to be observed in their countries to fully integrate into the Euro-Atlantic family, and that a higher female representation was just and fair for any democracy but will also contribute to increase both the qualitative as well as the representative level of parliaments within the region. “Women, who are successful in their own businesses and family, can successfully manage the decision making and the state,” speaker Topalli declared.
Ambassador Bosch thanked the Speaker for hosting the event together with the OSCE Presence. “The encouraging signals received from the Albanian political class on this issue should now be firmly and irrevocably converted into actions to secure 30 per cent of the seats in the next Albanian Assembly for women. I will continue talks with Albanian political parties in order to see that the approved Electoral Code leads to a significant increase in the number of women elected representatives in the Assembly,” he said. Bosch also stressed out that using effective gender quotas and organizing cross-party parliamentary women caucuses are two important tools for achieving greater participation of women in decision-making processes. “In Albania, there is some optimism that the Electoral Code will promote more equal representation. Such a proposal should be rightly lauded as a major step forward. However, now this proposal has to be translated into more parliamentary seats for women” said Bosch.
Participants agreed that women should work across political lines to promote gender equality.