For the 2023 elections, women’s candidatures for mayor in Cauca increased by 18%, in total there are 44 candidates.
At the Casa de la Moneda, in Popayán, the Gender Roundtable for International Cooperation (MGCI) met, a body that was established in Colombia in 2008 with the purpose of unifying efforts to improve Official Development Assistance and contribute to the advancement of gender equality in the country.
In the plenary session, held within the framework of the strategy “More Women, more democracy: towards parity in the territories”, the more than 15 representatives of the MGCI together with representatives of the National Government, the National Registry of Civil Status, the National Electoral Council, as well as the MOE and the Interparty Gender Table of the department of Cauca, took stock of the participation of women in the face of the local authority elections on October 29, and evaluated the conditions that are being presented in the territory to guarantee their full participation.
In Colombia, there are currently more candidates compared to those registered for the last elections (2019). Likewise, there is a greater growth in the number of women who made the decision to apply compared to four years ago, with the growth rate for female candidates being 15.5%, versus 7.7% for male candidates. For these elections, Colombia has 128,105 candidates for the territorial elections, of which 61% are men (78,092) and 39% women (50,013).
At the territorial level, women currently represent no more than 18% of positions in mayors, governorates, municipal councils and departmental assemblies. The department of Cauca, in the 2019 elections, had 30 candidates for mayor in the municipalities, this is 15.5% of candidates for these positions in the department, which implies that in relation to the national average, Cauca was ranked in the national average of candidates. However, there were no women candidates for the Governor of Cauca, in contrast to five candidates running for this position.
The general context of the department of Cauca presents multi-causal challenges and great potential due to ethnic-racial diversity, local talent and territorial wealth. However, violence against women in the territory does not decrease. According to data from the Pacific Women’s Route, in 2022, 49 Caucasian women were victims of feminicide between January and September of that year. Added to this is the murder of women who participate in political life, such as the cases of Edilsan Andrade, Karina García and Cristina Bautista.
Figures of political participation of women at the local level
• Currently, women occupy 9.3% of the governorships, 12% of the mayoralties, 17.9% of the councils and 17.5% of the assemblies. This puts Colombia in 100th place out of 141 countries, the average of the total number of seats occupied in deliberative bodies at the local level.
Numbers of candidates for the 2023 territorial elections
• In Colombia there are more candidates compared to those registered for the last elections (2019), this shows a greater growth in the number of women who made the decision to run compared to four years ago, being the growth rate of female candidates 15.5% women, versus 7.7% of male candidates.
• In 2023 Colombia has 128,105 candidates for the territorial elections, of which 61% are men: 78,092 and 39% are women: 50,013.
• In particular, it stands out that for the governorship candidacies there are almost double the number of candidates, going from 20 women registered for the 2019 elections to 39 for this year, covering the majority (75%) of the departments.
Numbers of candidatures in Cauca
• In the last elections, Cauca had 30 female mayoral candidates, that is, 15.5%, placing it within the national average for the total number of women candidates for that position. For the 2023 elections, there was an increase from 44 women candidates to 18% of female mayoral candidates.
• There were no women candidates for the Governor of Cauca for the 2019 elections. For the 2023 elections there are three women candidates and six men, which represents a participation of 33%.
On Violence Against Women in Politics.
• In the first six months of the 2023 local elections, 65 acts of violence against political, social and community leaders have been recorded, 141% more than in 2019. (Electoral Observation Mission, May 2023)
• Cauca has witnessed three murders of women who participated in politics and which were publicly documented: Edilsan Andrade, murdered in January 2023. In the 2019 elections, she was a candidate for the Cauca municipality council for the Independent Social Alliance (ASI). . Andrade was also part of the Integration Committee of the Colombian Massif, Cima. Cristina Bautista, Indigenous. Governor of the Tacueyó Council. She was murdered in 2019 along with four other people, including indigenous guards. Karina García, candidate for Mayor of Suárez Cauca, murdered in September 2019.