Local NGO Putting Women’s Issues on the Ballot in Algeria

With Algeria’s legislative elections fast approaching, a local NGO has been working to give voters, and particularly women, compelling reasons to vote.

Last year, the Information and Documentation Center on Women’s and Children’s Rights (CIDDEF) conducted a study which revealed that Algeria ranks 120^th worldwide in terms of women’s participation in political life.  Using this study and a grant from MEPI, the group is now pushing candidates to state their positions on a number of issues – including the lack of political representation for women – and then placing these party platforms in the public eye.

“Right now, there’s a visible imbalance in Parliament,” said Linda Bouadma, head of the CIDDEF project.  “Presently, only 6 per cent of the Members of Parliament are women and, at the Council of the Nation, the situation is even worse.  Out of 144 members, only 4 are women, or less than 3 percent.”

CIDDEF plans to help change this ratio, while promoting other critical reforms, by calling upon political parties to broadcast their positions on key issues ahead of the elections, scheduled for May 17.  These issues include the family code, violence against women and children, women’s health, and unemployment, as well as a proposed quota system to ensure that more women become Members of Parliament.

As part of its MEPI small grants project, CIDDEF developed and distributed questionnaires to candidates on these and others issues, and now plans to conduct eight radio broadcasts to spread these views to potential voters.  The NGO is also trying to raise awareness of the electoral campaign by providing daily news updates to journalists, producing posters and flyers to spread around the country, and holding a series of conferences intended to bring together candidates and members of the press. 

The first conference, titled “The Role of Women within Society,” was held February 14 and included representatives of four of Algeria’s nine leading political parties and nine different press organizations.  Parties discussed their positions on quotas in politics and the need not only for more women to be represented in the parties but for more involvement of women politicians in party life.

“This first conference was extremely useful,” Bouadma said, “but for the next one I plan to brief reporters ahead of time so that they get a better sense of the entire debate and the specific views of each party.”  The next conference, scheduled for March 14, will focus on the family code and violence against women.

Through these activities, CIDDEF hopes to hold candidates accountable and encourage more political participation among Algerians, while giving women a stronger voice in both electing and becoming future leaders.