Vanuatu voters urged to boycott male candidates

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20th August, 2012

Eleven Vanuatu women leaders who boycotted the presentation (PHOTO Vanuatu Daily Post, 21 August 2012)

A total of eleven women leaders confirmed boycotting MP Ralph Regenvanu’ssession during the “Women in Shared Decision Making Candidacy Training” Workshop at Crystal Blue last week.

Port Vila proposed candidates Wendy Himford and Jenny Ligo said it was a slap in the face especially for the four proposed candidates who are going to contest against MP Regenvanu and five other candidates in the Port Vila six-seat Constituency in the forthcoming general election on October 30.

Their concern was that MP Regenvanu was going to make a presentation to them during the workshop on Ethical Campaigning followed by Campaigning Lessons Learned. “We are not students or ordinary people but Leaders and we should be treated as such”, Jenny Ligo said.

They also had the same message for the Pacific Leadership Programme – an initiative of the Australian Aid Programme which they said allocated Vt5 million towards the workshop. They said paying each participants an allowance of Vt2,000 per day was peanuts as each one of them deserved to be paid Vt10,000 because they were all leaders and should be treated accordingly. MP Regenvanucould not be reached on his mobile for comment.

Meanwhile observers suspect that the “boycott” could have been instigated by an attitude problem than anything else that went back to the time when MP Regenvanu was Minister of Justice. At the time then Minister Regenvanu had his hands full with legal battles between the Heads of the Vanuatu National Council of Women Offices namely Maryanne Bani and Jenny Ligo and the Ministry of Justice, under whose umbrella VNCW is located.

Vanuatu Daily Post by Len Garae

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Vanuatu voters urged to boycott male candidates.

Female leaders in Vanuatu are urging voters to boycott male candidates at the October general elections.

There are currently no female members in the Vanuatu parliament.

Eleven women boycotted a speech this week by senior MP Ralph Regenvanu, who was addressing a women’s training workshop.

They say Mr Regenvanu has reneged on a commitment to help women have a greater presence in the parliament.

Activist Jenny Ligo has told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat program it is time for women in Vanuatu politics to look out for themselves.

“We think that is a good strategy, that on the voting days women should only vote for women,” she said.

“We think that is good and we make an appeal to other community leaders and even individuals to see the need for supporting women, not only in Port Vila but throughout the country.”

Eighteen female candidates are expected to contest the elections on October 30.

[Radio Australia]

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Jenny Ligo wins case, vows to clean VNCW
Posted on August 22, Vanuatu Daily Post By Len Garae

PHOTO Winners of VNCW case celebrate

Former Chief Executive Officer of the National Council of Women Jenny Ligo and her former Board have won a landmark victory in court to return to clean up the management of the organisation and the court has given them seven months to do it.

The Supreme Court granted Jenny Ligo the task of facilitating and coordinating the management of VNCW for the eight-member Board led by Manina Pakete. The Board comprises of six Provincial Women Council Presidents from the six Provinces and Manina Pakete (from Luganville) and Anita Deroin (from Port Vila).

Jenny Ligo was the CEO from 2002 to 2008. However, she indicated that her departure from VNCW was not in line with any compliance of a normal end of term period.

“I am stepping in now as required by the constitution because the Board has appointed me as stipulated by the constitution that VNCW has to have a CEO and I am going back with a new work format because I know that I have the skills to impact a positive turnaround for the organisation in the seven-month timeframe,” she said.

Following the court ruling in her favour two days ago, the CEO and Board Member Deroin were at TVL yesterday negotiating a Vt236, 000 outstanding phone bill that the VNCW has accrued. “I am appealing to our donor partners and relevant Government Ministries to help us off set the bills and put VNCW back on track,” she said.

While she has embarked on cleaning up the women’s organisation, she said, “In fact the whole country is facing a difficult crisis and I wish to appeal to the Members of Parliament, National Council of Chiefs, Vanuatu Christian Council, National Youth Council and all the local Non Government Organisations to clean up their individual houses this year to turn on a clean pace to organise transparent elections next year”.

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