Encouraging women in Halba to run for legislative elections

The Association “Nisaa Raedat” [Pioneer Women], in cooperation with the United Nations Program- Lebanese Electoral Assistance Program [LEAP], organised last Friday the first of a series of awareness raising workshops entitled “ Become a Candidate - Parliament 2017”, at Issam Faris Hall at the municipality building of Halba. The workshop addressed the importance of running for elections, while focusing on the self assessment of candidates, the various logistical steps of the process, and finally the importance of supporting women candidacy and of networking. It is noteworthy that the project is expected to extend for a period of six months and consists of several awareness raising workshops that aim at encouraging women to run for the parliamentary elections of spring 2017. During the awareness raising workshop, the head of the municipality of Halba, Abdel Hamid el Halabi, underscored the importance of project while the representative of the United Nations program, Nora Murad, addressed several topics such as:  women’s participation in political life temporary special measures such as the representation quota, the international and Arab ranking of Lebanon regarding women’s participation in political life, ways to increase the number of women and support them during the election process. For her part, trainer Vicky Zuwayn explained how to prepare for the candidacy, assess the various phases, as well as run within electoral lists. (Al Mustaqbal January, 22, 2017)