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As a way to promote women¡¯s participation in local politics, some have proposed a new system of creating electoral districts dedicated to female candidates to replace the current system of allocating a certain quota of proportional representatives to women in municipal elections.
In a forum titled ¡°How Should the Local Elections in 2010 Be Changed?¡± professor Lim Suhng-bin from Myongji University said, ¡°From the 3,867 candidates elected locally in 2006, only 527, or 13.7 percent, were women.
¡°No women were elected as mayor of major cities or provincial governors, and only three were picked as heads of lower-level local government units. The remainder took posts as local assembly members,¡± the professor added. ¡°It is desirable to adopt a system to create major constituencies dedicated to female candidates to give women opportunities to serve in local assemblies as representatives of their district.¡±
The forum, hosted by the Korea League of Women Voters, was held at the National Assembly Member¡¯s Building yesterday.
Kim Eun-kyung, a researcher at the Korean Women¡¯s Development Institute, said, ¡°It is necessary to adopt multi-member constituencies and to set aside 30 percent of the seats for women, allowing female candidates to compete with one another.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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