SUDAN / FEMALE CANDIDATES

STORY: SUDAN / FEMALE CANDIDATES
TRT: 1:51
SOURCE: UNMIS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 23 MARCH 2010 KHARTOUM, SUDAN

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot, conference area
2. Close-up, campaign poster reading “Support Her, Elect Her”
3. Various shot, participants at conference
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mahasin Abdel Gadir Haj Al-Safi, Member, National Elections Commission:
“In Sudan, we need to go gradually, because we have to make sure women participate. Maybe if the women proved that they can actually take part in the political life in Sudan so actively and so well – in the next elections maybe it will be normal that they can share in the different constituencies just like men.”
5. Various shots, men participants at the conference
6. Various shots, women participants
7. Various shots, posters highlighting the participation of women in the elections
8. Close-up, poster reading ‘for a nation without war’
9. SOUNDBITE (English): Mary Mbeo, Senior Official, UNIFEM:
“We don’t just want women to go there and make noise. Women should be issue oriented - and the education that is being carried out right now is issue oriented. We are saying - what are you going to deliver for women - economically, socially, politically - what are the issues. So they have to be issue oriented - not just talking and going to parliament.”
10. Various shots, posters reflecting the need to support women
11. Close-up, poster reading “Elect her”
12. Wide shot, conference

STORYLINE:

About 500 Sudanese women candidates are actively participating at different levels for various seats ahead of Sudan’s April elections – a sign that the country is gradually accepting the participation of women in leadership.

The beginning of a three day conference in the capital Khartoum, saw about two-hundred women representing different political parties gather to hear how their vote can make a difference.

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) together with the Political Parties Affairs Council (PPAC) on Tuesday (March 23) said the conference was aimed at sensitising women candidates through a common theme on gender equality.

SOUNDBITE (English) Mahasin Abdel Gadir Haj Al-Safi, Member, National Elections Commission:
“In Sudan, we need to go gradually, because we have to make sure women participate. Maybe if the women proved that they can actually take part in the political life in Sudan so actively and so well – in the next elections maybe it will be normal that they can share in the different constituencies just like men.”

Sudan’s National Assembly in July 2008 passed an electoral law allowing a quota of 25 percent of women candidates during the April elections.

Women candidates were challenged to highlight issues which they have to live up to, and not settle for petty politics.

SOUNDBITE (English): Mary Mbeo, Senior Official, UNIFEM:
“We don’t just want women to go there and make noise. Women should be issue oriented - and the education that is being carried out right now is issue oriented. We are saying - what are you going to deliver for women - economically, socially, politically - what are the issues. So they have to be issue oriented - not just talking and going to parliament.”

Various groups of non-governmental bodies are travelling around the country encouraging both men and women to vote wisely in Sudan’s first multi-party elections in 24 years.