5 Chimbu women register to contest

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
FIVE women in the Chimbu province are the first in the country to register with the provincial electoral office as candidates for the provincial seat.
The women decided to challenge their male counterparts in the general election after the 22 reserved seats for women failed to win the backing of Parliament.
Chimbu Women-In-Politics branch president Dre Cecillia, who is among the five wo­men, yesterday called on women and youths to support the women candidates.
She said all the women would contest as independent candidates but would welcome any support from political parties.
She said cultural barriers had denied many women victory in past elections.
Cecillia, who contested the Kerowagi Open seat in the 1997 election, said she and others who contested past elections knew how hard it was to get into parliament.
She said this was why they fought with the support of the sole woman MP Dame Carol Kidu to create the reserved seats for women.
She said they now had to go through the hard way.
She said women’s needs and wants would be addressed in parliament if they had many women MPs.
Cecillia urged women to break cultural barriers and speak out on the rights of all women in Papua New Guinea.