SHAH ALAM - A total of ten women candidates from various parties who contested in the 15th General Election (GE15) will be sharing their experiences in tomorrow's Post-GE15 Women's Political Leadership Forum.
The forum titled 'Moving forward' to be held at the Tamu Hotel & Suite, Kuala Lumpur would be officiated by the Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.
The forum is organised by Malaysia National Council of Women's Organisation (NCWO).
The forum will feature Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin from Bersatu, Datuk Seri Shahaniza Shamsuddin (Umno), Haniza Mohamed Talha (Parti Bangsa Malaysia), Aiman Athirah Al-Jundi and Nurthaqaffah Nordin from Amanah, Gan Ay Ling and Siti Aisyah Shaikh Ismail from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Syerleena Abdul Rashid (DAP), Ivone Low Yi Wen (MCA) and Siti Rahayu Baharin (Muda).
The forum will be moderated by Universiti Poly-Tech Mara (KUPTM) Associate Professor Dr Sharifah Syahirah S.Shiekh and Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) Associate Professor Dr Ummu Atiyah Ahmad Zakuan.
In a statement today, NCWO pointed out that forum will also be co-organised by Gagasan Minda Merdeka (GMM), the Civil Society Monitoring Committee for GE15 (Pantau GE15), the Women's Development Department (JPW) and the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry (KPWKM).
"This forum is a follow up to the GE15 results that witnessed the percentage of women representation in the Parliament decreased from 14.9 per cent to 13.5 per cent.
"Even at the State Assembly level, the percentage of female representatives was still far from the target of 30 per cent with Pahang state assembly at 4.8 per cent, Perlis state assembly at 20 per cent and Perak state assembly at 20.3 per cent.
"The percentage for women in the Cabinet was 17.9 per cent also did not reach the target of at least 30 per cent of women in the decision-making role," the statement said.
NCWO considered such percentage to be disappointing despite the consistent push from the women's political party wings, women's organisations and civil society.
It added that although there was an increase in the number of women candidates which was 127, involving 103 seats, only 23.6 per cent were successfully elected for the 30 Parliamentary seats.
In that regard NCWO believed that there was still a lot of effort needed to ensure that the political leadership opportunities favour the women adding that the cause of their defeats needed to be carefully studied to as to increase their winnability in the next election.
"This forum will be a platform to share experiences involving the 10 candidates from various parties about the challenges they faced in GE15," read NCWO's statement.