Mizo National Front leader, Zoramthanga who was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Mizoram recently, said that his cabinet is going to be all-male. Talking to SheThePeople.TV about this in a short interview, he said that while there are candidates, “unfortunately, they cannot contest successfully”.
He further added, “It happens because even though parties want women candidates, the problem is that we don’t have good women candidates who will get votes and that is the problem of every party.”
The veteran politician, who also served as the Chief Minister of Mizoram from December 1998 to December 2008, for two consecutive terms, believes that it is the people's mentality that does not let women enter politics in Mizoram. “They are a little chauvinistic and at the same time, we don’t have good women candidates. In society, they are very popular certainly but as a politician, so far they are unsuccessful. We are a different kind of society that does not promote women candidates.”
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“It happens because even though parties want women candidates, the problem is that we don’t have good women candidates who will get votes and that is the problem of every party.”
Zoramthanga is certain that his first initiatives as CM would be to implement total prohibition. “We will go for massive improvement of roads in Mizoram, and we will implement my flagship programme — the socio-economic development plan.”
Asked what he would do for the women of Mizoram, he said, “We are going to improve the condition of women here. There is a very good scope and we will try to improve them as far as possible, giving them as many favours as possible.”
Barely 16 women candidates ran for office out of the total of 209 candidates in Mizoram and none of them got a seat in the state assembly. While women voters in Mizoram outnumber male voters by close to 20,000, yet the society doesn’t give women a chance to have representation in state politics.
Picture credit- Northeast Now
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