President-elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has requested businessmen to sponsor 19 women candidates of the PPP/PNC coalition in the upcoming 20th Parliament.
Speaking at a ceremony held by the Maldives National Association of Construction Industry (MACI) last night, Muizzu said he wanted to involve everyone in all aspects of the country and increase opportunities for women and youth.
Muizzu said he would like to increase the participation of women in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The people's representatives should not always be men, he said, adding that both sexes have equal opportunities in other ways as well as by law.
However, he said, everyone should stand up to encourage women to do so and business owners should give their full cooperation in this regard.
Muizzu said that the target for the time being is to reserve 20 percent of the seats in parliament for women. That’s 19 of the 93 seats. He also asked them to show it by their actions rather than by words.
In addition, the party will try to encourage women to contest for parliament by providing a special allowance to each woman elected by the PPP/PNC.
The 19th Parliament has 87 members. Only three of the 87 members of parliament are women.
