28th May 2010
Within the initiative "There are more of us" that brings together eight NGOs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and which is supported by the Gender Task Force Regional Centre for Gender Equality, a working meeting was held in Banja Luka with the female mayors of BiH municipalities, in the organisation of the United Women Banja Luka and the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Banja Luka. Out of four elected female mayors, three took participation in this meeting: mayor of Kalinovik Milena Komlenović, of Novi Grad Snjezana Rajilić, and of Drvar Anka Papak - Dodig.
Mayors were presented with the initiative "There are more of us", and planned activities under this initiative, while discussion was led about the goal of the meeting which was to find out what their experience has been during their campaigns and what is the situation in their municipalities since they assumed the new posts of mayors, asking them whether they have already made plans about the activities to be conducted during their forthcoming election campaign.
Experiences were similar when it comes to the campaigning at the last local elections. Ms. Railić says that she won the most votes out of all women who were running as candidates in elections in the past ten years, but that during her election campaign she had pass most kilometres and raise loans to finance her own campaign.
As for Kalinovik and Drvar, both mayors also worked very hard in the campaigns to gain positions which they are currently holding, while the mayor of Kalinovik said she had to fight against double prejudices because in Kalinovik, electorate in average is older than 50 years, and were of the opinion that she would not be a good mayor for two reasons: first because she is a woman and the other because she is young. "When you face such a situation, you must be wise to approach it from different perspectives, therefore I always brought my deputy with me and answered such questions with “I have him to help me”.
As for the situation in their municipalities, it is as satisfactory as it can be in a poor country; they have introduced new ways of management in their municipalities, meaning regular meetings with their associates in other to assign responsibilities, tasks and obligations for the sake of more productive work, which their predecessor never did.
When talking about activities in the election campaign, some of them have already started with meetings, electorate is being counted in Drvar because some voters left municipality, some are dead ....
Ms. Railić pointed out that the strategy is being prepared in her municipality where she is the president of party’ municipal board. There are local boards being established which are developing their own strategies as Novi Grad has no local community building.
In Kalinovik preparatory meetings are also ongoing, aimed at developing strategies.
This meeting was used to urge mayors of these municipalities to appeal to the electorate to give their votes to women candidates at the upcoming elections, with the explanation that the BiH Election Law requires that at least 30% of less represented gender hold positions of decision makers, while the Law on Amendments and Changes to the Law on Gender Equality in BiH, Article, 15 says that there has to be at least 40% of less represented gender at all levels of government.
28th May 2010
Within the initiative "There are more of us" that brings together eight NGOs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and which is supported by the Gender Task Force Regional Centre for Gender Equality, a working meeting was held in Banja Luka with the female mayors of BiH municipalities, in the organisation of the United Women Banja Luka and the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Banja Luka. Out of four elected female mayors, three took participation in this meeting: mayor of Kalinovik Milena Komlenović, of Novi Grad Snjezana Rajilić, and of Drvar Anka Papak - Dodig.
Mayors were presented with the initiative "There are more of us", and planned activities under this initiative, while discussion was led about the goal of the meeting which was to find out what their experience has been during their campaigns and what is the situation in their municipalities since they assumed the new posts of mayors, asking them whether they have already made plans about the activities to be conducted during their forthcoming election campaign.
Experiences were similar when it comes to the campaigning at the last local elections. Ms. Railić says that she won the most votes out of all women who were running as candidates in elections in the past ten years, but that during her election campaign she had pass most kilometres and raise loans to finance her own campaign.
As for Kalinovik and Drvar, both mayors also worked very hard in the campaigns to gain positions which they are currently holding, while the mayor of Kalinovik said she had to fight against double prejudices because in Kalinovik, electorate in average is older than 50 years, and were of the opinion that she would not be a good mayor for two reasons: first because she is a woman and the other because she is young. "When you face such a situation, you must be wise to approach it from different perspectives, therefore I always brought my deputy with me and answered such questions with “I have him to help me”.
As for the situation in their municipalities, it is as satisfactory as it can be in a poor country; they have introduced new ways of management in their municipalities, meaning regular meetings with their associates in other to assign responsibilities, tasks and obligations for the sake of more productive work, which their predecessor never did.
When talking about activities in the election campaign, some of them have already started with meetings, electorate is being counted in Drvar because some voters left municipality, some are dead ....
Ms. Railić pointed out that the strategy is being prepared in her municipality where she is the president of party’ municipal board. There are local boards being established which are developing their own strategies as Novi Grad has no local community building.
In Kalinovik preparatory meetings are also ongoing, aimed at developing strategies.
This meeting was used to urge mayors of these municipalities to appeal to the electorate to give their votes to women candidates at the upcoming elections, with the explanation that the BiH Election Law requires that at least 30% of less represented gender hold positions of decision makers, while the Law on Amendments and Changes to the Law on Gender Equality in BiH, Article, 15 says that there has to be at least 40% of less represented gender at all levels of government.
Banja Luka, 9 June 2010
Tuzla, 02 June 2010
Banja Luka
