Women running for congress

There are only few female candidates in the upcoming elections in Guatemala. Based on the forum "Women on their way to power", Lone Hvass reports about female candidates from different parties.

By Lone Hvass, MS cooperant in Accion Ciudadana

For the upcoming elections in Guatemala, the following ‘seats’ will be filled: Presidency; Vice-Presidency; 158 Members of Congress (rising from a current 113); 20 seats in PARLACEN, the Central American Parliament; and Mayors for the country’s 331 municipalities. No less than 20 political parties and citizen committees are contending for public office; unsurprisingly, few of the candidates are women. There is just one female candidate for the Vice-Presidency (of Authentic Integral Development / DIA) and a small number of women candidates running for Congress. Most of these are low down on the ballot and therefore unlikely to get a seat in Congress. Exceptions to this rule are Alba Estela Maldonado from the Guatemalan Revolutionary Unity / URNG and the General’s daughter, Zury Rios Montt of the Guatemalan Republican Front / FRG who are first on the national list of their respective parties.

Interestingly, at a recent forum for women candidates running for Congress, there was a strong sense of common ground to be covered on the legislative agenda, very decent behaviour indeed on the part of contenders, and a minimum of mudslinging towards fellow candidates – rather unlike the forums held for presidential candidates. Participants in the forum called ‘Women on their Way to Power’ included representatives from the following parties: Guatemalan Revolutionary Unity (URNG), the Great National Alliance (GANA), the Guatemalan Christian Democracy (DCG), Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), New Nation Alliance (ANN), and the National Progress Party (PAN). Below follows a few quotes from the participants.

Responding the question of what she would change about Congress, if she were to be invested with such powers, Nineth Montenegro from ANN promptly answered, ‘Everything!’ The Legislative branch of government - not just the current Legislature – has a bad name in Guatemala. For starters, she would implement a quota policy to ensure gender equity in Congress.

On the latter point, only one candidate disagreed, Lucrecia Marroquin de Palomo of FRG who said that ‘if a woman is well prepared she will be well received, including in politics’. Notably, the FRG had opted to not send the General’s daughter to this forum. De Palomo’s statement entailed a somewhat uncomfortable silence among the audience as well as the other candidates.

Carmen Rosa de Leon of the DCG said that it was high time to open the doors of Congress to public scrutiny and emphasized corruption as one of the number one ill affecting parliamentary activity.

Already a Congresswoman for two consecutive turns and a known voice in the fight against corruption, Anabella de Leon from GANA agreed that political misdemeanours had to be investigated and punished. Referring to the acceptance of Rios Montt as presidential candidate, she denounced the fact that the Constitutional Court had responded to the official ruling party rather than the Constitution.

Rina Sanchinelli from PAN wanted to do away with parliamentary impunity immediately and secure a redistribution of the national budget. She also pledged to push legislation on sexual harassment, a (n anti-) social ill affecting all strata of society in Guatemala.

Alba Estela Maldonada of URNG, the former guerrilla insurgency force turned political party, said she would work to mainstream gender into public policies as well as the state budget, and push for the creation of a strong state with capacity to respond to its public in the areas of health, education, housing and employment.

All candidates coincided that public security – an overheated populist potato on the agenda of most presidential candidates - must be secured in tandem with securing civil and political security, in other words the forging of a legitimate and participatory democracy in which citizens, especially women and youth, are not fearful of exercising their civil and political rights. Some pledged allegiance to vulnerable sectors such as domestic workers whose labour rights are far from secured, while others focussed on public child care provisions.

All but one (from FRG) recalled the Peace Accords as the only legitimate point of departure for establishing rule of law and sound public policy in Guatemala.