- Publika iha: 30 Janeiro 2023
The Deputy Secretary General of the CNRT political party, Cedelizia dos Santos, said the party has women with political potential at the national level and all the way down to the local level and they will give their best and compete during the upcoming parliamentary election in 2023.
She added, CNRT is a key party that invests in its cadres, including training as a core program rather than just waiting for the next election to get ready.
“For us in CNRT, this is not innovative thinking, to only get ready when there is an election. As I mentioned, training is ongoing, whether we are in power or not. Whoever belongs to the party structure must follow the plan,” she said during the National Dialogue to Strengthen Women’s Participation in Politics for the Parliamentary, Municipal, and Suku Elections, with the theme Women are Ready to Lead, Women Leaders Lead with a Difference And Make Change, at the Delta Nova Hall, in Dili.
She added CNRT’s leadership are aware of the 30% quota defined in the Parliamentary Election Law and in the party’s statutes, Article 59, that encourages women to be part of the party’s structure and to assume leadership roles within the party.
She said also, the current parliament structure includes 9 women out of 21 members of the CNRT bench, and that represent 42%, which is above the 30% quota, and all of them are intelligent and demonstrate political acumen.
Meanwhile, a member of the Democratic Party (PD), Gertudes Moniz, said their training program for political cadres takes place weekly and they discuss various topics including politics, leadership, and language.
“The Women’s Organisation of the Democratic Party, holds meetings with women of potential within the party so that together we prepare the strategy that enables us to enter at all levels of the party structure, from the executive to the department level. We encourage women to be brave and confident to be candidates to be leaders of the party,” she said.
She added, they advocated with the leaders of the party to ensure candidates numbers 3 and 4 of the party must be women, given the number 1 and 2 spots belong to the President and to the Secretary General of the party, and these are elected by the party members.
Current PD has 1 woman Member of Parliament out of 4 members representing the party bench.
Member of FRETILIN’s Women’s Organisation, Lídia Norberta dos Santos, said the laws ensure women’s participation in political life and within political parties, and the party is also committed to ensuring women will be represented in the national parliament.
She added the 30% quota system ensures 1 out of 3 candidates from a political party nomination must be a woman, which explains why at the national parliament, there isn’t a marked difference in the representation of women across the different party benches.
“CNRT’s and FRETILIN representation shows we are committed as political parties to adhere to the legal framework. The other parties also have women represented in parliament. PLP has more women than men, KHUNTO has 2 women and 3 men, PD has 1 woman and 4 men,” she said.
She informed during the first legislature, women’s representation in the national parliament included 19 women or 29%, during the second legislature 21 women or 32%, in the third legislature 23 or 35%, in the fourth legislature 24 women, and in the current and fifth legislature 26 women or 40% of the 65 members of parliament are women.