5 Sep 2011

Women in Marshall Islands more confident in running in elections

5:02 pm on 5 September 2011

The Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Marshall Islands says more women now have the confidence to run in future elections.

Thirty women have participated in a four-day parliamentary training workshop and a mock parliament for females.

A spokesperson for the Ministry, Molly Helkena says the training last week was to educate women on parliamentary and election processes.

The Marshall Islands currently has one woman in parliament but Ms Halkena says the ministry expects more women to run in future local and parliamentary elections.

"I would say they are more confident and I think that the big one would be they had a good experience of going into the parliament and how the rules are going and how rules and procedures are done and debates and motions, resolutions and bills and at least they got a little bit of training on how all that process goes through in our parliament."

Molly Helkena says about nine women are planning to run in the November elections.