Afghanistan: Rise In Female Candidates

From Bloomberg Businessweek:

The number of Afghan women candidates for September’s parliamentary elections has risen 22 percent over the tally for the vote five years ago, according to a United Nations Security Council report released today.

The number of women pursuing legislative seats increased to 400 out of 2,635 candidates. That compares with 328 women out of 2,707 candidates in the 2005 elections, the UN said.

“This number ensues that, at a minimum, women candidates will fill all of the 68 allocated seats and are likely to get additional ones,” the world body said in the study. There are 249 seats in the Afghan National Assembly’s Wolesi Jirga or House of People, according to the parliament’s website.