“Women can do it 2 – Local elections 2005”

Increased percentage of women on the candidate lists

The Union of Macedonian Women Organizations assessed their project “Women can do it 2 – Local elections 2005” which they realized in the period between May and November this year to be highly successful. According to the UMWO President, Savka Todorovska, the association managed to lobby certain changes in the Law on local elections, according to which women will be present on the candidate lists with 30%. “This is a great step forward”, she thinks, considering the fact that the percentage of women on the lists now in comparison to the percentage of 8.5 at the Local elections in 2000 has increased for more than 50%. The National Project was realized in the past period, whose goal is to strengthen the women from the political parties and encourage them to include more in the candidate lists for the local elections. So far, 10 seminars on the gender concept and the need of an equal participation of men and women in all spheres of the social living have taken place for that purpose. The project had two goals: political parties' analysis from the aspect of gender and replacement of the Law on local elections which foresees a minimum women participation of 30 percents on the candidate lists. In that respect an agreement has also been signed with the leaders of 10 political parties from Macedonia.

The project was realized in cooperation with the Department for Promoting the Gender Equality at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and financially supported by the OSCE Mission in Skopje.