Explaining the outcome of gender quota campaigns in Samoa and Papua New Guinea

Background

After Samoa won independence, only matai (chiefs) were eligible to vote and stand for Parliament. This rule restricted women’s political participation, as only a small fraction of matai are female. ²³ Universal suffrage was introduced in 1990 after a referendum found just over half of voters in favour, creating an influx of female voters. While all adult Samoan women have been eligible to vote since 1990, eligibility to stand for election is still restricted to matai. Despite the relatively low number of female matai, some women have been successful in national politics (see Table 1). Following the 2011 election, there were two female MPs in the Samoan Parliament.

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Table 1.

Women MPs in the parliament of Samoa, 1962–2011.

Term	Women MPs	Total MPs	Percentage of MPs who were women
1962–1964	0	47	0.0
1964–1967	0	47	0.0
1967–1970	0	47	0.0
1970–1973	1	47	2.1
1973–1976	2	47	4.3
1976–1979	2	47	4.3
1979–1982	1	47	2.1
1982–1985	1	47	2.1
1985–1988	2	47	4.3
1988–1991	1	47	2.1
1991–1996a	2	49	4.1
1996–2001b	3	49	6.1
2001–2006	3	49	6.1
2006–2011c	4	49	8.2
2011–present	2	49	4.1

Notes: ^a In 1991, the number of MPs increased by two; a constitutional amendment in 1992 increased the parliamentary term from three to five years.

^b Four women were initially elected in the 1996 election, but two lost their seats after electoral petitions. Another woman was elected in a 1998 by-election.

^c Five women were initially elected in the 2006 election, but one lost her seat after an electoral petition.

Source: Ministry of Women Community and Social Development, Samoa.

In October 2011, Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi made an announcement that he was seeking to implement legislation to reserve 10 per cent of parliamentary seats for women. Discussing his plans, the prime minister said:

If we do not put in the necessary stipulation in our legislation one never knows whether in the next elections there [will] be absolutely no women in Parliament. So this is part of our intention to ensure that there shall always be women in Parliament. ²⁴

The Constitution Amendment Bill 2013

According to the constitutional amendment, the Samoan quota will ensure a minimum of five women parliamentarians. If five or more women win seats in a general election, the quota will not be activated. If fewer than five women win seats in a general election, additional seats in Parliament will be occupied by the female candidates who gained the highest percentage of the vote in their constituencies.

There are mixed opinions regarding the future effects of implementing the proposed quota. It was generally thought that the legislation would result in more women being encouraged to run for Parliament. ²⁵ The legislation had generated more public dialogue around gender roles, and around women’s representation, and civil society leaders hoped that having at least five women in Parliament would help to normalise women’s representation and lead to greater acceptance of women in politics. ²⁶

Doubts were raised by women leaders in civil society and the public service about the ability of five women MPs to make an impact in Parliament. The quota was described as ‘minimal’, ²⁷ and ‘not enough’ to make a real difference. ²⁸ They were concerned that women who became additional MPs rather than being elected outright in their constituencies would be perceived as ‘second-rate citizens in Parliament’ and respected less than MPs who had won constituency seats. ²⁹

Among urban Samoan women, the legislation was expected to have little effect for Samoan women living in rural areas. It was thought that it would be mostly educated Apia-based women putting themselves forward as candidates. There was not a wide awareness programme regarding the quota, and many people involved in the debate doubted that women living in rural areas fully understood the significance of the legislation. ³⁰

Background

In Papua New Guinea, women have never made up more than 2.8 per cent of parliamentary seats, although the number of female candidates contesting elections has risen significantly over time. In the first post-independence election in 1977, 10 women stood as candidates; in the 2012 election, there were 135 women candidates. ³²

Following the 2007 general election, advocates for greater women’s representation began to push for special measures to increase the number of women in Parliament. First, there was an attempt to create nominated seats. A provision in the Papua New Guinea Constitution provides for the establishment of up to three nominated seats in Parliament: ‘The Parliament may, from time to time, by a two-thirds absolute majority vote, appoint a person (other than a member) to be a nominated member of the Parliament’. ³³ These seats are not specifically for women, but could in theory be used to increase the parliamentary representation of any societal group. Kidu had attempted to implement this provision to bring in additional women in the previous parliamentary term, but her proposal had been defeated in cabinet. ³⁴ Following the 2007 election, she made a second attempt to institute nominated seats. In this case, the prime minister then selected three women nominees following a recruitment process, but the leader of the opposition refused to support the move, and when Parliament voted to confirm the nominations, they were voted down.

While the nominated seats process was ongoing, a proposal for reserved seats was being developed. The legislation advocated by Kidu would amend the Constitution to add special seats for women as a category of parliamentary seats along with open seats, governors’ seats and nominated seats. ³⁵ It would be accompanied by enabling legislation to institute the reserved seats before the 2012 general election. When the Equality and Participation Bill was first mooted, the prime minister at the time, Sir Michael Somare, was supportive of the legislation. ³⁶

The Equality and Participation Bill

The Equality and Participation Bill was tabled in Parliament on 9 September 2011. The debate over reserved seats for women in Papua New Guinea was highly polarised and followed closely by national media. Kidu claims: ‘I would say, in the fifteen years I’ve been a member, I think it was the most…public campaign type of legislation in the whole time’. ³⁷ The Equality and Participation Bill was passed by 72 votes to two on 23 November 2011. The Constitution was henceforth amended to include a provision for 22 reserved seats for women.

To implement the law, however, an amendment to the organic law on elections, requiring a two-thirds majority in Parliament, was needed. On 22 February 2012, the Organic Law on National and Local Level Government Elections (Amendment No 2) Bill was debated. The amendment received 58 votes in Parliament, short of the 73 needed for a two-thirds majority. While only one MP voted against the amendment, 21 MPs left the chamber shortly before the vote commenced. ³⁸

Despite reserved seats not being in place, the 2012 election still saw a record number of female candidates. Three women were elected to Parliament, ³⁹ the highest number of female MPs since the first post-independence election in 1977. Given the highly publicised campaign for reserved seats in the years leading up to the election, it was suggested that the public awareness of women’s under-representation raised by the campaign contributed to the success of the three new women parliamentarians. Other factors raised as potentially significant by observers of the election were party support, notably, from the Triumph Heritage Empowerment (THE) Party, which endorsed two of the successful female candidates, and the high profile of the three women in their respective electorates. ⁴⁰ After being sworn into Parliament, all three women MPs stated that they would not support a resumed call for reserved seats, arguing that women should compete alongside male candidates in the open and regional seats. One claimed: ‘If I can do it others can too’. ⁴¹

Some campaigners for reserved seats believe that there is still a chance that they will be implemented in Papua New Guinea. ⁴² Kidu, however, believes that there is little hope of advancement without a sitting female MP who is committed to advocating for the reserved seats proposal. ⁴³ Alternative methods to increase women’s representation have been mooted, including a 10 per cent party candidate quota, which was one of the proposed changes to the Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC). ⁴⁴

Local actors

One aspect in which the campaigns in Samoa and Papua New Guinea differed was in the role of the women’s movement, with women activists in Papua New Guinea playing a much greater role than their Samoan counterparts. In Samoa, women’s organisations were engaged to an extent in the quota campaign, although women in civil society were discouraged by what they perceived as the government’s unwillingness to consult with them over the issue. Concern was expressed that there was no public consultation over the bill prior to its drafting, despite the proposal first being mooted about a year before the bill was drafted. ⁴⁵ The lack of consultation meant that while non-governmental actors could and did voice their opinions on the legislation, they lost any influence they may have had over the provisions of the bill. ⁴⁶

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been the main advocates for greater women’s representation in Samoa in the past. The Samoa Umbrella of Non Government Organisations (SUNGO), ⁴⁷ a coalition of over 120 civil society organisations, consulted on the legislation and held a national forum on 1 March 2012 to gather the views of civil society communities. Around 100 people attended the forum, which resulted in a submission that SUNGO presented to Parliament. The submission stated that an ‘overwhelming majority’ of forum participants agreed with the intent of the legislation to increase the number of women in Parliament, but expressed concern over the design of the proposed quota. A separate women’s electoral roll to elect five female parliamentarians was suggested as an alternative option, although the submission did not provide details on how the separate roll would be implemented. ⁴⁸

The extent and nature of grassroots involvement in the gender quota campaign is contested. Some claim that it was a grassroots movement, ‘though the Government has made that doorway, they just turned the knob to the door and we push’. ⁴⁹ It is argued that women from the grassroots were active participants in the forums on the issue. Others, however, maintain that the campaign could not be characterised as grassroots, and that village-based women had little influence on the campaign. ⁵⁰

In contrast to the Samoan campaign, the push for a gender quota in Papua New Guinea came primarily from women’s groups. The sponsor of the proposed Women’s Bill was Kidu, the only female MP at the time the bill was proposed. Kidu, however, stresses that she was a ‘political conduit’ and that the drive for reserved seats came from outside of Parliament, ⁵¹ particularly from the National Council of Women (NCW) and other women’s organisations. The NCW and the Women in Politics group were heavily involved in promoting reserved seats, and established a roadshow that travelled through the four regions of Papua New Guinea to promote reserved seats for women. The NCW had significant organisational capacity throughout the country, with a network of provincial councils that was utilised extensively during the reserved seats campaign. ⁵² While activists claimed that attempts were made to raise awareness of the issue outside the urban centres of each province, funding restrictions and geographical barriers made this difficult:

we tried to reach out to some villages…but not as extensively as we [might have], not in the geographical terrain in PNG [Papua New Guinea]. You probably need helicopters to go out to the most remote villages tucked away behind these big mountain ranges so [there were] those practical difficulties. ⁵³

While the women’s movement was less prominent in the Samoa campaign than in the Papua New Guinea campaign, both campaigns had high-level male political elites advocating for gender quotas from inside Parliament. In Samoa, the prime minister has been the primary advocate for the proposed gender quota. Within the Samoan government, he was the initial proponent of the legislation. Given that his party holds a two-thirds majority in the Samoan Parliament, his support has been crucial to the success of the quota campaign.

Female MPs have taken a less prominent role in the Samoan campaign. There are two female MPs in the current term, both members of the governing Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP). While both MPs have spoken in support of the legislation in Parliament and in the media, they have largely assumed a background role in the quota debate. Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, the current minister of justice, explains:

there’s also a lot of room for misunderstanding I think, being a woman and a politician, that could be interpreted as a very sort of a personal thing. And I think it’s very important that men are seen to be active. ⁵⁷

In Papua New Guinea, male politicians were divided over the Women’s Bill. Both Somare, who was prime minister when the legislation was first mooted, and his successor, Peter O’Neill, publicly stated their support for the Women’s Bill. Kidu credits Somare as a firm supporter of greater women’s representation, ⁶⁰ while O’Neill claimed that greater women’s representation would improve governance in Papua New Guinea: ‘Only with the input of women will PNG go on and thrive to become a great nation’. ⁶¹ The support of both Somare and O’Neill, however, did not guarantee the success of the reserved seats legislation:

we had assurance from the prime minister but he is just one person…it meant that he had to convince those others who were with him to vote for what he believed in. And not everybody was with him when it came to the final casting of the votes. ⁶²

External actors

In both cases, international organisations played a role, with the proposed quotas gaining support from international actors. In Samoa, the UN provided funding and support for public discussions on the legislation. The UN also sent a technical advisor on special temporary measures to Samoa after the legislation was announced. She met with civil society leaders, although the involvement of the UN in this way was not universally welcomed:

The UN technical advisor came and said, you know, just be happy that there’s political will behind the government’s bill, to support it, I said that’s not my point, so there we have a technical advisor, who is very, to me, like imposing her ideas…[they] want a tick in the box, we want something that is progressive. ⁶⁶

Donors played an important role in the campaign, through providing significant technical and financial support. The UN offices in Papua New Guinea provided assistance to the campaign in the form of advocacy skills training and campaign materials. ⁷⁰ UN Women ran media campaigns in support of the reserved seats, with print media, radio and television advertisements. ⁷¹ The UNDP’s role included support in drafting the Women’s Bill, lobbying MPs, gender-sensitising projects and funding for projects, including a billboard advocating for reserved seats that was placed in a prominent position on the road leading to Parliament House. ⁷² AusAID also provided technical and funding assistance, often channelling funds through the UNDP. ⁷³

There were suggestions in both cases that international organisations and donor agencies had applied considerable pressure on the national governments to institute quotas. Tautua Samoa MP Levaopolo Talatonu argued that the UN was heavily involved in the Samoan campaign:

the United Nations is behind the push, and my concern is that if it’s left unopposed, it will lead to Samoa’s traditional form of government becoming lost eventually. It’s an indication we’re going backwards to the days before Samoa became independent…it’s the UN which is calling the shots and the HRPP is sucking up to them. ⁷⁴

No independent state in the Pacific region had adopted a gender quota before the Samoa and Papua New Guinea campaigns, thus limiting the opportunities for the regional diffusion of quotas. The extent to which women’s activist networks coordinate and influence other quota campaigns in the Pacific region is hard to determine. Coordination between women’s groups in the Pacific is limited by the geographic spread of the region, a lack of funding and language barriers.

Quotas are used at sub-national level in the Pacific region, with the parity law mandating equal representation between genders on party lists in the French Pacific territories, and three reserved seats for women in the legislature of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. The quota used in the French territories was not referenced by campaigners in Samoa and Papua New Guinea. The reserved seats in Bougainville were referred to in the Samoan campaign, but in a negative manner. Supporters of the proposed quota argued that it was superior to a system like that in Bougainville, claiming that this kind of system led to the reserved seats being considered ‘women’s seats’ and the general seats, therefore, men’s seats. ⁷⁷ As Bougainville is a region of Papua New Guinea, lawmakers were undoubtedly aware of the region’s reserved seat system, although it is unclear whether that was a significant influence on the Papua New Guinea campaign. Supporters of the campaign argued that a reserved seat system was the only logical choice for Papua New Guinea: ‘It was the only thing that seemed possible, to get a reasonable number of women on the floor.’ ⁷⁸

Structural factors

Conservative political cultures are a feature of politics in most Pacific Islands states and could contribute to lower levels of women’s representation and a resistance to measures to increase the number of women in Parliament. ⁷⁹ In the Pacific region, the strict enforcement of gender roles in the colonial era meant that in communities where women previously had significant input into decision-making, they were then relegated to the domestic sphere; in others, colonial and Church administrations replaced one set of customs that restricted women’s access to the public sphere with another. ⁸⁰ Huffer has argued that it is not, in fact, culture and custom, but rather their interpretation by those in favour of the status quo, that results in women’s political under-representation. ⁸¹

During the debate over gender quotas in both Papua New Guinea and Samoa, culture was invoked by opponents of the quotas. In Samoa, one of the most common arguments against instituting a quota was that it was a foreign idea and not compatible with Samoan culture. Opponents suggested that Samoan society was not ready to elect more female representatives. ⁸² They emphasised the high status of women in traditional society, ⁸³ and argued that Samoan women themselves were not prepared to put themselves forward as candidates. ⁸⁴ Others contended that while some cultural traditions may be discriminatory, the proposed quota was not an appropriate solution:

there are some cultural practices that may be counterproductive to the advancement of women’s development. But you have to use culturally acceptable ways to address those kinds of things. It’s very difficult to bring in…an idea or a way from overseas, which works overseas, and apply to here and hope and believe that it will work. Because most likely it won’t. ⁸⁵

Kidu explained that some of the opposition to quotas also stemmed from the belief that they were incompatible with democracy:

it’s not only pushing cultural boundaries but…people’s perception of what democracy is, also. Often people don’t understand there are many, many forms of democracy. And they’ve had this fixed idea of the elections and how they should be run and, because that’s all they’ve known since independence…something different is…seen as favouring one segment of the population, when that segment has no voice anyway. ⁹⁰

The electoral institutions of each country may have affected the types of quota proposed. Samoa primarily uses a first-past-the-post (FPP) voting system, although in certain electorates, a block vote (BV) system is used as two MPs are elected. The proposed quota legislation would operate under a ‘best loser’ system. The quota is designed so that if fewer than five women are elected in a general election, additional women will enter Parliament. If five or more women won seats in the general election, there would be no additional seats.

The voting system used in Papua New Guinea is limited preferential voting (LPV). It was changed from FPP ahead of the 2007 general election. Under the LPV system, voters must vote for three candidates who are ranked according to preference. This change was expected to help female candidates, ⁹³ although no new women MPs were elected in 2007. Following this election, the reserved seat legislation was proposed. The Papua New Guinean proposal was for one reserved seat per province. While there was debate over whether to specify a set number of reserved seats in the legislation, the decision was ultimately made to tie the number of reserved seats to the number of provinces, which was previously 20 but increased to 22 in 2012. ⁹⁴ As the electoral boundaries for provincial representation were already in place for the election of governors’ seats, tying the reserved seats to the number of provinces was considered a practical move. ⁹⁵ The reserved seats would have increased the size of Parliament to 133 seats after the 2012 election, with 89 general electorate seats, 22 governors’ seats and 22 reserved seats for women.

The effect on parliamentary politics of the two quota proposals could have been quite different. In Papua New Guinea, the establishment of 22 reserved seats for women would have ensured a minimum of 16.5 per cent female representation in Parliament, a huge increase from the current 2.7 per cent. In contrast, the Samoan proposal would have a smaller impact on the gender make-up of Parliament, as five women would represent between 9.3 per cent and 10.2 per cent of MPs, depending upon how many additional members were required to meet the quota. Both of these quotas, however, are relatively low compared to quota requirements in other countries. While legal quotas range from 5 per cent to 50 per cent, a quota of around 30 per cent is most common. ⁹⁶