Page 25 - Islands Business March 2022

Politics

Fiame speaks at International Women’s Day March Lenora Qereqeretabua Marstella Jack. Photo: YouTube
2022. Photo: Government of Samoa

THE COST OF POLITICS

By Sera Tikotikovatu-Sefeti candidate for the FSM Congress, financial pressures were
compounded.
The poor representation of women in Pacific politics is “Running as a single woman was the greatest challenge
again under the spotlight as Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Austra- because I did not have spousal support as most candidates
lia, Wallis and Futuna and American-affiliated Pacific states do,” she says.
and territories are all expected to hold elections this year. “I spent over US$100K for the three elections combined,
The Pacific has the lowest political women’s representation 2017, 2019 and 2021.”
in the world, according to the United Nations Development
Program. Access to finances to fund their campaigns is a com- Lawmakers, not note-takers
mon barrier cited by political hopefuls. The lack of support for women running for election stems
“One of the biggest challenges I personally faced when I from traditional, customary and social views. A report co-au-
campaigned in Congress as a woman was a lack of financial thored by femLinkPacific recently concluded: “Many citizens
resources,” says Palau’s Vice President Uduch Sengebau in the region continue to associate politics with men and view
Senior. political leadership as a masculine trait. Institutional barriers,
“It is expensive for women to enter into politics.” such as electoral systems and political parties, impact the
Sengebau Senior said her campaign cost US$50K and she extent to which women compete in the political arena.”
had to take loans to fund her run for the Palau National Con- “We have a strong patriarchal custom and it will take time
gress in 2012. for people to see that. I mean, in the last election I didn’t
Fiji’s Lenora Qereqeretabua, a member of the opposition even receive any votes from my village,” Qereqeretabua says,
National Federation Party in parliament, faced a similar pre- “And I’m one of them who’s addressing their issues in par-
dicament when she ran for election in 2018. liament.”
“I had to take out my savings to support my campaign, In Pohnpei, Marstella Jack says expectations of female
which came to a total of F$60K (US$28.3K),” she said. “At candidates are higher.
times I feel the electoral guidelines for those wanting to “I felt the public’s high expectation of me to campaign like
run as a candidate is setting us up to fail, because there are a man, that I could go and speak in front of chiefs in their
so many rules, some which can be difficult for women to high chiefly language, which is a different dialogue level.”
achieve.” Jack says as the only female cabinet member, she was
Although representation of women in Fiji’s parliament has always tasked with taking notes in meetings.
improved from seven in 2014 to 12 (of 51 MPs) in the last “During one of the campaign meetings, this man said, ‘In
general election, elected female MPs are still subject to Pohnpei, women are not expected to lead because that would
demeaning comments on their physical appearance in parlia- mean that they would be sitting up there looking down on the
ment. man and that is unacceptable in our culture’,” she says.
For Marstella Jack, the first female (and former) Attorney-
General of the Federated States of Micronesia and a former Continued on page 27

Islands Business, March 2022 25