The Secretary General of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Vidar Helgesen, has said that he was impressed with Rwanda’s emergence from a fierce civil war to set a world example, with its women occupying a significant number of seats in the country’s legislature.
Helgesen is in Botswana to brief the Southern African country on the audit of the 2009 General Elections and to discuss the African Union Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.
“In the country’s 2008 elections Rwanda set a new world record for female representation in Parliament, as women took 56% of contested seats in Rwanda’s parliament,” he said.
IDEA works through activity areas in the fields of elections, constitution building, political parties women’s political empowerment and democracy self assessment.
“These include proving comparative knowledge derived from practical experience on democracy building processes from diverse context around the world, assisting political actors in reforming democratic institutions and processes and engaging in political processes when invited to do so,” he said.
IDEA is an intergovernmental organization formed in 1995 to support sustainable democracy worldwide and its primary mandate is to support sustainable democratic change by providing comparative knowledge, assistance in democratic reform, and influencing policies and politics.
Source African Press Agency
African News from NetNewsPublisher.com
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