Claim: A steward of the Congress for Democratic Change claims that about 30% of the candidates on their party’s ticket in Liberia’s 2023 elections were women.
Verdict: False. Only 13% of the candidates on the CDC’s ticket were women.
Full text
Amidst the low representation of women in elected positions in Liberia, on May 11, 2023, 25 political parties signed an agreement with the National Elections Commission (NEC) to have a 30% gender quota of their candidate listings.
The agreement came after a bill seeking to make it mandatory for political parties was not signed into law as of the time of the 2023 elections.
Giving his party’s perspective on the 30% gender quota reform, a steward of the former ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) says his party supports women’s representation.
Israel Akinsanya claims the “CDC made the list of 30%” gender quota during the 2023 elections.
He can be heard from 2:20:44 to 2:20:50 in a panel discussion.
Given that this borders on Liberia’s quest for a 30% gender quota, DUBAWA verified Akinsanya’s assertion.
Verification
DUBAWA visited the official website of the NEC to review the candidate listing of the former ruling CDC.
On the final listing for the representative candidates’ category, 67 of the 73 representative slots were fielded by the CDC.
Of that number, 56 were males, while only 11 candidates were females.
Also, of the 15 seats for the senatorial candidates, the party fielded 13 candidates, all of whom were men.
In the presidential category, the former ruling establishment had a male as its presidential candidate.
Of the 81 total candidates the CDC fielded in the 2023 elections, only 11 were women, representing just 13% of the party’s total candidates.
This is even less than half of the gender quota percentage.
Conclusion
Therefore, Israel Akinsanya’s assertion that the CDC made the list of the 30% gender quota in the 2023 elections is false.