Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Underrepresented for decades, women candidates received a major boost in their struggle for legislative seats in Thursday's polls, a survey revealed on Tuesday.
The survey, conducted by Indo Barometer in early March, involving 1,200 respondents in 33 provinces, revealed that 84.5 percent of voters saw women and men as equal in politics. When asked if they supported female candidates, 81.6 percent said yes.
Using multistage sampling, the survey stated a margin of error of 3 percent. "But most respondents didn't agree with women candidates receiving special treatment," Indo Barometer executive director Muhammad Qodari said on Tuesday.
Qodari referred to special treatment in the light of a recently annulled stipulation in the election law that had required parties to allocate at least 30 percent of their legislative seats to women.
University of Indonesia political expert Ani Soetjipto said the results of the survey had given women's rights defenders new hope in their quest to improve women's representation in government.
However, Ani said, the biggest challenges women candidates face are from their political parties, not from the general public.
"Resistance against women taking positions in legislative bodies comes from political parties, because many of them have no internal policies to support women legislators," Ani said.
Earlier, the coordinator of the Civil Society Alliance for the Revision of Political Laws, Yuda Irlang, predicted that only a few women candidates would secure seats in the House in the incoming polls.
"I think it will be a miracle if more than 68 women legislators gain seats as in previous elections," Yuda told a recent discussion sponsored by the Women's Empowerment Movement Foundation and the Association of Independent Journalists in Jakarta.
Most women candidates had neither experience in promoting themselves nor adequate budgets to organize campaigns, Yuda said. "Women candidates, just like men, have been forced by their constituents to provide money to them," Yuda said, adding that male candidates usually had more access to funds than their female rivals.
The new election mechanism would hamper women candidates from winning seats – even if they secure enough votes, she said. "Many dedicated and intellectual women candidates come from small parties which will find it difficult to meet the 2.5 percent parliamentary minimum," Yuda said. Only parties that fulfil the threshold will be able to gain house seats.
The Constitutional Court ruling which introduced the open election system (whereby candidates with the most votes win seats), has exacerbated the situation because the onus has been shifted onto individual candidates to garner support for their election campaigns. "But women candidates will still have opportunities to win seats in provincial or regional legislative councils," she said.
Women candidates will also have to deal with women voters. "We discovered this trend in a simulation, where women were more likely to pick men over women for their representatives," Yuda said. "This is because many people don't realise the important role women legislators can play." Jurnal Perempuan Program Manager Aquino W Hayunta said
Indonesia could emulate countries like Sweden and Rwanda, which had found that electing more women in parliament served them better than governments in other countries. (naf)