Women to rule Rwanda parliament

Rwanda already holds the world record for highest proportion of female MPs




Rwanda will be the first country where women will outnumber men in parliament, preliminary election results show.

Women have taken 44 out of 80 seats so far and the number could rise if three seats reserved for the disabled and youth representatives go to females.

Rwanda, whose post-genocide constitution ensures a 30% quota for female MPs, already held the record for the most women in parliament.

The ruling party coalition won 78% of seats in Monday's vote.

Indirect elections for women's quota seats took place on Tuesday and votes for two youth representatives and a disabled quota seat are taking place on Wednesday and Thursday.

It is the second parliamentary elections since the genocide of 1994 when some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias in just 100 days.

slaughtered by Hutu militias in just 100 days.

80-SEAT PARLIAMENT
Elected seats: 53
* RPF: 42 seats, 78.76% of the vote
* Social Democratic Party: 7 seats, 13.12% of the vote
* Liberal Party: 4 seats, 7.5% of the vote
Quota seats: 27 (women 24, youth 2, disabled 1)

Women total: 44 seats, 55% of parliament
Preliminary results Rwanda National Electoral Commission

President Paul Kagame was instrumental in establishing the Tutsi-led 's Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) - the rebel force which took power and ended the genocide.

The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in the capital, Kigali, says the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party have conceded defeat.

In the outgoing parliament, 48.8% of MPs were women - the world's highest rate. It is now set to be at least 55%.

Women who stood in seats reserved for female candidates were not allowed to represent a party.

"The problems of women are understood much better, much better by women themselves," voter Anne Kayitesi told the BBC's Focus on Africa.

"You see men, especially in our culture, men used to think that women are there to be in the house, cook food, look after the children... but the real problems of a family are known by a woman and when they do it, they help a country to get much better."

Rev. Al Sharpton, other Prominet Demo break with Unions

Join Choice MovementWritten By: Christin CoynePublished In:
School Reform NewsPublication Date: September 1, 2008Publisher:
The Heartland Institute

Teacher unions and other traditional voices in education may be getting it wrong, the Rev. Al Sharpton has decided.
In the past, the civil rights activist has been known more for his opposition to school choice than for any teamwork with New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, but that changed radically in June when Sharpton joined Klein and a diverse group of fellow free-thinkers from all political stripes to form the Education Equality Project, a group advocating more charter schools and greater accountability.
"We keep going to the old ways that don't work, to protect the political careers of some and the contracts of others at the expense of the children. And the results are the data that we have," Sharpton said at a June 11 press conference.
"And someone has to have the political and the social courage--and I hope this group helps to begin that nationally--to say, 'Wait a minute, the children are suffering,'" Sharpton said.
Civil Rights Issue
Klein noted African-American student achievement lags four years behind that of white students nationwide. Fixing that, he said, may mean Democrats such as Sharpton will have to call on the National Education Association (NEA) and other unions to stop standing in the way of systemic reforms.

"We failed to fix what was so obviously broken in the 1950s and long before that," Klein said. "Today if you're born African-American or Latino in this country, if your parents are poor, you're much more likely to fall behind in a struggling school. You're likely to get much lower scores in math and reading than you need and in other core subjects, and you're much more likely to drop out. And if you do graduate, you're more likely to graduate less prepared for college and for success.
"We need to be clear about this. To me, this is not just an issue of school reform. It's a civil rights issue--indeed, the civil rights issue of our time," Klein said.
Broad, Bipartisan Support
The Education Equality Project's goals include creating accountability in every level of schools, putting effective teachers in classrooms of students with the greatest needs, and expanding parental choice through charter schools.

The effort has garnered unusually broad bipartisan support nationwide. Members include former Democratic National Party Chair and Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Roy Romer, DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
"The results [of today's school system] are that over half of [our] young black men are not graduating school--many of them fast-tracked to jail and their lives destroyed. And we don't have the time, because we have our alliances and our old core missions, to speak on their behalf," Sharpton said.

"This group is being formed to give voice to that, to say to those that are bringing about this era of change, whomever that might be, in the White House or in our houses, that we must make a priority this devastating problem, of lack of equal achievement accessibility for young students around this country," Sharpton added.
Klein and Sharpton have already begun their campaign to bring their message to the White House by seeking out both presidential candidates this summer. Members of the Education Equality Project have met with the campaign staffs of the presumptive major-party candidates, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL).

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=23749