Violence poses threat to women’s ability to participate in elections ― DEC Director

IT has been declared that democracy without equal and active participation of half the population is impossible while violence poses a threat to the women’s ability to participate in politics freely and without fear.

The declaration was made by the Director, Development Exchange Center (DEC) a Bauchi based NGO, Mrs Titi Yakubu while presenting a position paper at one-day seminar organised by Bauchi state office of INEC on mitigating violence against women in election held on Monday.

She lamented that violence against women remains a serious obstacle to the realisation of women’s political rights because according to her political violence has adverse impact on women during elections period as political tension during election can create vulnerabilities for women in political participation and result in women exclusion from the process.

Titi Yakubu also stated that the exclusion of women undermines every democratic process while the integrity of election is called to question when women voters are prevented from accessing polling stations describing violence against women as the worst crime and constitutes violation of women rights and fundamental freedom.

She further observed that violence against women in elections may prevent them from standing in as candidates for political offices and discouraging them from voting declaring that both female voters and politicians have experienced increased harassment, violence and psychological abuse.

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According to her the impacts of violence against women in election include prevention of political campaigns in certain areas, reduction in the number of women contesting for political offices, limited visibility of women in campaigns, resignation of elected women leaders and lower voter turnout of women.

She then suggested that mitigating and preventing of election violence against women should include training programs for polling stations staff, dialogue among electoral stakeholders to create an agreement on the rules of the game, efficient and credible complaints process, legal policy reform to prevent and respond to violence against women in elections.

Other mitigating factors according to Titi Yakubu are increase number of women in Police force, providing protection for women candidates and training of Police on violence against women in elections as well as working with political parties to prevent and reduce violence against women in elections and raising awareness and changing norms.

She concluded that political violence negates peaceful coexistence, law and order just as in addition to security concerns it militates against the consolidation of democracy and social existence which in turn impacts on the social and economic well-being of the country and creates imbalances in social relationships.

Titi Yakubu further stated that political violence brings complex set of events such as poverty, ethnic or religious grievances and represents a disturbance movement in political equilibrium and peaceful coexistence of the system because women are key drivers of the society.

“To shut them out and leave them to suffer is to invite confusion and disorder to the society. Women are builders, leaders and influential to any society or nation. We must as a nation strive to protect women by shelving acts that could lead to crisis during the upcoming general elections, if we must grow and stand against other external aggression,” she stated.

The DEC Director added that, “every form of illegitimate and unauthorized use of force to effect decisions against the will or desire of other persons in the society is political violence and has its dire consequences on the nation. We need legislation that would protect women against violence during elections in order to ensure more women participation in the electoral process because they constitute majority of voters during election.”