The head of Türkiye’s Women Entrepreneurs Association (KAGIDER) on Wednesday called on all political parties to “better evaluate” women applying for parliamentary seats and nominate them from regions “they have a chance to get elected from" in the upcoming elections.
“The number of women in deputy candidate lists must be increased and these candidates must be placed in ranks they can be elected in,” said Emine Erdem in a statement announcing seven KAGIDER members’ candidacy in the 28th term parliamentary elections on May 14.
“This way, the number of women lawmakers at the Turkish Parliament would increase and a more balanced tableau would emerge in terms of gender equality,” Erdem noted.
“So long as the energy and potential of women, which make up half of the population, are not utilized, Türkiye will not be able to solve its problems,” she said.
Stressing that Türkiye is heading to a “critical election under challenging conditions,” Erdem argued that “all political parties and their candidates must ponder, more so than how they will win the vote, but on what they will do after May 14 and how they prepare and implement policies that can lift Türkiye out of its troubles and into the future.”
Stressing the importance of increasing women’s roles in politics as well as economic and social life while representing men in equal weight, Erdem said, “Women, chief among our country’s most dynamic elements with the potential to make the biggest contribution to Türkiye’s sustainable development goals, must be at the center of these policies.”
Türkiye’s political parties are currently busy picking parliamentary candidates and applying the final touches to their election manifestos with less than six weeks left until the much-anticipated presidential and parliamentary vote.
While the opposition’s six-party bloc Nation Alliance has declared they would nominate members via joint lists, it is yet unclear whether President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s People’s Alliance will produce joint candidates with its smaller allies.
Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), however, has revealed it would introduce affirmative action for women and youth among its candidates. The party is already credited with improving the political landscape for women with a series of steps during its 20-year rule, but the amount of women at the Turkish Parliament still lags at 17.33% as per official figures.
During the 27th term of Parliament, women consisted of 18.95% of the AK Party’s lawmakers while compromising 11.94% of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).
