KOTA KINABALU: Sabah political parties must act together to amend the state constitution to create additional women-only nominated assembly seats, urged a group of politicians and social activists.
Dubbed the “Women-Only Additional Seats (WOAS) Enactment”, the group said this initiative is aimed at increasing women’s representation in the state legislative assembly by 7.6%, ensuring that six out of 79 elected and nominated members are women.
It would also reduce the gender gap to 22.4% among the 73 elected seats, said the group clustered under Projek Stability and Accountability for Malaysia (Sama) together with Bait Al-Amanah and Pergerakan Orang Wanita Empowerment and Revolution (POWER).
In a report on Thursday (Oct 10) compiled from a two-day workshop held this week on enhancing women's political representation, the group said the WOAS enactment would be akin to a "Closed List Proportional Representation" system.
“After nomination, all parties contesting in any state constituency may nominate up to six women candidates, listed in a fixed order of priority.
“The enactment would ensure that, before elections, the six nominated seats are allocated to parties based on their overall vote share, with the positions filled according to the predetermined list. In the event of a vacancy, the next candidate on the list would be appointed to fill the position,” the group said in a statement on Thursday (Oct 10).
They added that the call for the constitutional amendment was in line with the United Nations' goal to achieve at least 30% representation for women in decision-making roles at all levels of governance.
Sabah women activists expressed regret that while the state talks of being inclusive to women in all aspects of social, economic, and political life, it still ranks ninth out of 13 states for the percentage of women elected to the state assembly, with only 8.2%, six out of 73 elected members, being women.
The group further noted that, despite six nominated seats in the state assembly, only one is held by a woman, bringing the total female representation to 8.9%, or seven out of 79 members.
They also highlighted the low percentage of female representation in the Dewan Rakyat, with only 12% of Sabah’s parliamentary representatives being women or three out of 25.
“We are deeply concerned that Sabah ranks 15th out of 16 states and federal territories in Malaysia’s Gender Gap Index 2022, with a political empowerment score of 0.031.
“This reflects a significant gender imbalance in political participation and representation,” they said.
