Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin, the Executive Director of ABANTU Ghana, has urged greater involvement by women in elections, particularly those held at the District levels.

This she said during a day-long gathering of women from all spheres in the Adansi Asokwa District of the Ashanti region.

Traditional women, religious women, political women, and businesswomen all took part in the discussion.

The objective of the gathering was to get these women involved in politics and provide them the tools they need to participate in elections on a level playing field with males.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Adansi Asokwa, Hon. Andrew Aduboahene, the Presiding Member (PM), Hon. Augustine Kofi Adomako, the Planning Officer, Akua Frimpongmaa Frimpong, the Social Welfare Officer, Jeffery Amo- Asare, and many others were also in attendance at the event.

Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin stressed how important it is for women to be chosen as leaders and voiced unhappiness with the history of women's lesser involvement in elections, particularly at the District levels.

She gave the participants the confidence to rely on and support themselves in order to fulfill their leadership duties.

She mentioned ABANTU's willingness to support women in their own modest way by offering T-shirts, posters, and other items.

The DCE, Hon. Andrew Aduboahene, stated that since women are peaceful, they cannot be excluded from anything that is desired to be done well.

He empowered women to ignore discrimination and fight for positions they know they can well occupy.

The PM, Hon. Augustine Adomako revealed how the Adansi Asokwa District has no elected woman as assembly member within the 27 electoral areas and indicated how worrying the situation is.

Mr. Jeffery Amo-Asare, the Social Welfare officer, encouraged women to be bold having touched on how the district performed very well when it had a woman as its district coordinating director.

The participants which included men as well, were made to share their challenges with women participation in elections which some of the challenges revealed included, financial assistance, discrimination especially from the opposite sex, political interference and many others.

The successful event ended with impressive performance from some of the participants on how eager they are to be part of the upcoming District level elections of the country.

Source: Lily Ampofoa Prekoh/Ghanaguardian.com