Ethiopia’s ruling coalition reserves quota of legislative seats for women

By ANTHONY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Oct 29, 2004 (AP) — Ethiopia’s ruling coalition will field female candidates in 30 percent of seats in federal elections set for May 15, 2005, to boost the participation of women in politics, an official said Friday.

Women hold 7.6 percent of seats in the 548-seat federal lower house of parliament, despite accounting for some 51 percent of Ethiopia’s estimated population of 70 million. The ruling coalition currently controls 88 percent of seats in that house.

The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front will also field women in 50 percent of seats it will contest in regional legislatures, said Ethiopia Beyene, deputy head of the parliament women’s affairs committee.

Leading opposition parties also say they will reserve for women a quota of seats they will contest in the polls.

“For the country to be a true democracy women must be properly represented,” Ethiopia said. “Women can make valuable contribution in certain areas in parliament that men often cannot.”

Ethiopian women often are victims of female genital mutilation and bear the brunt of poverty, poor health care and lack of education. More than 70 percent of marriages in the country are by abduction, the National Committee on Traditional Practices of Ethiopia says.

Only six percent of women are literate, fewer than six percent can expect to receive skilled help during childbirth and one percent will die while giving birth, said the United Nations Children’s Fund. Seventy percent of women in Ethiopia have also been victims of female circumcision, a cultural practice that is outlawed in the West.