MALACCA: PKR Wanita today proposed changes to the electoral system to break the glass ceiling in Malaysian politics.
Its chief Haniza Mohamed Talha said among them was to select more than one representative for an area like the party-list proportional representation system where candidates were named in the form of lists and female candidates could be nominated alternately alongside male candidates.
“(In the first-past-the-post voting system), each constituency can only nominate one candidate, the effort to name more female candidates will receive resistance from many assemblymen or male leaders who want to be candidates,“ she said when delivering her policy speech at the 2019 PKR Wanita Congress here.
Speaking in front of about 500 delegates at the congress themed ‘Women’s Leadership: Leadership for All’, she said PKR Wanita on May 22 had brought the proposal for non-constituency seats for women to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also the Women, Family and Community Development Minister.
To make that agenda possible, Haniza said PKR Wanita wanted all states to establish the non-constituency seats for women, in addition to the existing system, thus allowing the implementation of quotas for women and underrepresented groups such as Orang Asli and disabled people. — Bernama
