Abstract
The 2015 Bougainville election was a milestone
for women’s political representation. The largestever
cohort of women candidates contested; one
candidate, Josephine Getsi in Peit constituency,
became the first women elected to the House of
Representatives in an open seat. She joins the
three women members elected in reserved seats
in a House that now has 10 per cent women’s
representation, although the number of women
in Cabinet remains the same as in previous terms,
at one. For many women candidates, however,
the results of the election were disappointing,
mirroring recent elections elsewhere in Melanesia,
which has one of the lowest rates of women’s
political representation in the world.
While Josephine Getsi’s win is a notable
individual achievement, it would appear that
the vast majority of women candidates still face
significant barriers to election. This Discussion
Paper examines the question of how women
contest and win elections in Bougainville, through
an analysis of the campaign experiences of
successful, near-successful and less successful
women candidates.1
It adds to the empirical
literature on women’s political representation in
the region through an in-depth study of women
candidates in the 2015 Bougainville election: their
profiles, motivations and campaign strategies.
Furthermore, it analyses the impacts of three issues
that emerged as common themes in discussions
around women’s participation in political decisionmaking
in Bougainville: the electoral system,
money politics and matrilineal traditions.
Original language | English |
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Commissioning body | Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |