Again, Moustaches Would Dominate Parliament

Women underrepresented

Despite the calls of the Association for Support and Education of Women Candidates (Ka-Der) and despite the public commitment of political parties to women´s quotas, women have again not been placed at the top of lists, and they are still in the minority.

As it stands, women candidates make up around 20 percent of all candidates, and a much smaller percentage will make it into parliament.

ÖDP leads

The party with the highest ratio of women is the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) with 132 candidates out of 405. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has the lowest ratio with 35 female candidates making up 6 percent of its list.

The other parties have got varying ratios of women candidates:

* The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP): 62 women out of 550 candidates

* The Republican People's Party (CHP): 52 out of 550

* The Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP): 132 out of 405

* The Turkish Communist Party (TKP): 154 out of 550

* The Labour Party (EMEP): 42 out of 139

* The Democratic Party (DP) (to be confirmed): 55 out of 381

* The Motherland Party (ANAP) (to be confirmed): 88 out of 303

* The Democratic Society Party (DTP), which is running with independent candidates:

14 out of 62.

Women activists left out

Women well-known for their involvement in the women´s movement, such as Canan Arin, Seyhan Eksioglu, Nazik Isik and Selma Acuner, have not been placed on the lists.

The President of Ka-Der, Hülya Gülbahar, interprets this exclusion as a cross-party message to women.

Men "stealing" the women´s seats

At the moment, there are 24 women MPs out of a total of 550. Internationally, Turkey ranks 163rd out of 167 countries in terms of representation of women. Even if the number of female MPs were doubled, Turkey's ranking would only improve by three or four places.

Gülbahar emphasised the need for a legally inscribed women's quota. She said that out of the 550 seats, 275 were by rights for women. As it stands, a maximum of 50 seats will be filled by women this year, thus "letting the men steal 225 seats from us".

Selen Lermioglu Yilmaz from Ka-Der said that the claim that there were insufficient applications by women has been used as an excuse. "If the applicants for candidature this year had been supported, there could have been a 80 percent representation of women in the new parliament. However, now it looks as if there will be only 13 percent women". (AÖ/EÜ/AG/EÜ)