Finnish amb. praises Egyptian women running in local elections

CAIRO – 24 April 2018: Finnish Ambassador to Egypt Laura Kansikas-Debraise said that she is pleased with Egyptian women’s persistence to participate in the political and social life.

Along with a number of public figures and parties’ members, Kansikas-Debraise attended a conference that aimed to encourage women to “positively participate in the local [elections].”

The next local elections are set to be held in 2019. The conference was held by Tadwein Gender Research and Training Center in Cairo.

Kansikas-Debraise praised the Egyptian leadership’s appreciation of women’s role in political and social efforts. She also lauded women’s participation in the parliamentary elections and their insistence to run in local elections.


A conference was held by Tadwein Gender Research and Training Center to encourage women to “positively participate in the local [elections].”

In 2017, the 18-year-old National Council for Women (NCW) made a clear plan to raise the awareness of women, encouraging them to run for local councils.

In January, NCW President Maya Morsi said that the council has trained over 20,000 women to run in local elections. She added that 10,000 women are already to run.

According to law, women have 25 percent of the local councils’ seats. Parliament Speaker Ali Abdul Aal said in January that local councils’ female members will hold more than 25 percent of the seats.

The four-year term local council members have the duty of monitoring service facilities and following up on governmental plans carried out throughout Egypt’s governorates.

Local elections are supposed to be carried out in the first half of next year, which will be the first in a decade, state news agency MENA reported in April.

Egypt has been without local councils since‮ ‬June 2011, when a court dissolved them after the popular uprising that ended the 30-year rule of former President Hosni Mubarak. Government-appointed officials have run local affairs without council oversight since then.

The last local elections in 2008 were won overwhelmingly by the now dissolved National Democratic Party, the ruling party of the Mubarak era.

Local elections were scheduled for the first quarter of last year, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail told Parliament in March 2016, but they did not take place. Parliament is now expected to pass a law that will allow the local polls to be held.

“The local elections will be held during the first half of 2019 after the local administrative draft law is passed by Parliament,” parliamentary spokesman Salah Hassaballah told reporters, according to MENA.


FILE: The number of female parliament members increased by 10 times in the current parliament according to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Omar Marawan

The year 2015 saw a great increase in the number of women running in the parliamentary elections. Women in the current Parliament constitute about 15 percent of the 597 parliament members.

According to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Omar Marawan, women constituted only 1.5 percent of Parliament members in the dissolved 2012 Parliament.