GE13: Women candidates performed better?

Female candidates who won during the 13th General Election (GE13) did not create a huge impact for Barisan Nasional's (BN) win at Putrajaya, according to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) International Political Analyst (Southeast Asia) Dr. Kartini Aboo Talib Khalid.

However, in the competitive arena of politics, even a one seat win by a female candidate is still needed to ensure an easy win for BN in the electoral system.

Kartini added the GE13 has shown BN’s win was secured by the amount of parliamentary seats they’ve won in Sarawak and Sabah, and gender wasn’t the winning factor.

The chart above shows the number of women candidates, who contested during GE12 and GE13 and the seats won by them.

The amount of parliamentary seats won by women during PRU12 and PRU13 is the same but there is an increase for state seats won by BN, from 23 to 27 seats.

As for Pakatan Rakyat, there was a decline in parliamentary seats won during PRU13 by one but there is an increase for state seats from 18 to 30 seats during PRU13.

What’s interesting is that, the women from BN and Pakatan proved they have the same competitive edge as both secured 40 parliamentary and state seats even though BN has more parliamentary seats and Pakatan Rakyat has more state seats.

The overall percentage of women involved in politics is still low even though the struggle to strengthen women’s participation in parliament began in the early eighties.

The decline of women’s participation is not in sync with BN’s aspiration to provide opportunity and space for women’s voice in parliament.

“This perspective is a hindrance in achieving at least 30% of women’s participation in politics considering women make up the majority of voters and the biggest contributor towards the country’s development,” she said.

Former Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim said the decline of female candidates for the parliamentary seats will reduce women’s voice in the Dewan Rakyat compared to the amount of female candidates for state seats.

“This matter should be improved so that women’s capabilities could be maximised and presented not just in the cabinet but in other sectors as well.”

Political analyst Dr Faisal S Hazi said the candidate’s gender is not the deciding factor during this year’s GE13.

Voters decide based on the party which the candidate represented.

“For example, Datuk Kamilia Ibrahim is one of the strongest candidates at her own constituency but lost when she ran as an independent. The same applied to DAP’s Jenice Lee,” he said.

According to Dr. Jeniri Amir, a political analyst from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) women should improve their knowledge, expertise, skills and experience through various strategies.

Their sense of approach is also a factor that needs improvement to build credibility and allow them to shine and win the hearts of the voters during the next general election.

Apart from that, female politicians need long, middle and short-term plans in terms of infrastructure, economy, social and education matters.

A total of 168 female candidates contested for the Parliamentary and DUN seats during the GE13.

The amount showed an increase of 40% compared to the 120 female candidates who contested for both the parliamentary and DUN seats during 12th General Election.

According to the Election Commission’s (EC) statistic, there were 56 women vying for parliamentary seats and 112 women vying for state seats.