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	Blazing a trail for Africa''s women by Lucy Fleming BBC News Africa - Liberia   African women are celebrating, as Liberia''s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has become the continent''s first elected woman president.   The 67-year-old grandmother said she hoped her win would "raise the participation of women not just in Liberia but also in Africa".   "It''s a historical phenomenon, which is going to be an example to other African countries... I could scream my heart out," Nigerian politician Sarah Jubril told the BBC''s World Today programme. So is Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf''s victory the start of a trend?   Ugandan academic Sylvia Tamale says African patriarchal societies like to see women firmly in their place. She quotes a Ugandan man at a woman candidate''s parliamentary campaign rally in 1996 asking: "Have you ever heard a hen crow?"   Yet, despite these traditional values, African women can crow success on a number of fronts.   For the past two years Rwanda has led the world in parliamentary representation for women. Its case is more unusual given the large number of people, educated and moneyed, who returned from the diaspora after the 1994 genocide - but it does reflect the trend in countries moving from post-colonial turmoil to multi-party democracy.   In rankings compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Mozambique, South Africa and Burundi have more than 30% of parliamentary seats held by women, compared to an average of 19% for their contemporaries in Europe.   New constitutions like those adopted in Burundi and Rwanda ensure ethnic and gender quotas, while political parties like South Africa''s ruling African National Congress have quotas for women candidates.   Affirmative action has it critics, but as Kulah Balo - a woman farmer in Sinje village in Liberia - illustrates things are changing even in remote areas.   "Women are becoming more involved in making decisions in the village. Before, when the men held public gatherings here, they told us women to stay behind. If we went, they wouldn''t let us say anything," she told the BBC.   Mrs Balo says with more educated women in the public eye, ordinary Liberian women have been given a sense of empowerment. "Before whatever the man said would go but now both husband and wife take decisions together."   And it was fighting a cause for ordinary women that won Kenya environmentalist and politician Wangari Maathai international recognition. Known for her tree-planting campaigns, last year she was awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for promoting social, economic and cultural reforms.   Mrs Sirleaf and Mrs Maathai share - as well as iron determination - a feminine approach to politics. Mrs Sirleaf says she wants "to bring motherly sensitivity and emotion to the presidency" as a way of healing the wounds of war.   Feminine sensitivity, however, is not something that is immediately associated with Zimbabwe''s Vice-President Joyce Mujuru, whose nom de guerre during the 1970s liberation struggle was "Spill Blood".   Analysts believe she was picked as President Robert Mugabe''s number two last year, not only because she is from his ethnic clan but because her husband, Solomon Mujuru, once led the army and can still guarantee their loyalty.   This is a slight role-reversal. In the past, it was by pulling strings from behind the scenes that women managed to exercise power.   In Rwanda, former first lady Agathe Kanziga, married to the late President Juvenal Habyarimana, and her family kept a firm grip on the steering wheel until 1994.   But despite concerns about Mrs Mujuru''s leadership qualities, she has earned respect for going back to school to finish her education as well as taking up a ministerial post after independence in 1980.   And education remains the biggest challenge as girls'' schooling is often sacrificed in favour of boys - for example in Benin only 47% of girls attend primary school compared to 61% of boys.   After Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf, a former World Bank economist, perhaps Africa''s most powerful woman is Nigeria''s feisty Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. A one time vice-president of the World Bank, she is waging war on corruption in Nigeria and has negotiated a debt relief deal worth $18bn (£10bn).   Mozambique''s Prime Minister Luisa Dias Diogo is another former World Bank employee, who shares the nickname "Iron Lady" with Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf.   In a strange coincidence, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf will be Liberia''s second female head-of-state, after Ruth Perry who acted as a transitional leader for a short time in the late 1990s.   Another concern for African women campaigners is that women are often raised to see each other as competitors.   Without unity, Zambia''s National Women Lobby Group argues that women will have no hope of capturing the presidency next year.   This week the umbrella group announced it was backing the candidacy of the FDD''s Edith Nawakwi. "This is the first time the women''s movement has clearly indicated to the country that it needs to take seriously the issue of having a female president," Ms Nawakwi said - urging women to go and register to vote.   Despite the fact women are a majority in Africa, to gain a meaningful mandate they need the respect of their male constituents and colleagues.   Even high-ranking female politicians can sometimes be treated with little or no respect. Three years ago, Uganda''s then Vice-President Specioza Kazibwe revealed that she had been forced to leave her husband after he had assaulted her. The revelation caused a stir in Uganda, where wife-beating is not uncommon.   In Liberia, Mrs Sirleaf will need to win over the ex-combatants, who largely favoured the brawn of her opponent, the ex-footballer George Weah.   With so many obstacles, female politicians in Africa must often feel it is almost impossible to get to the top.   But Mozambique''s Prime Minister Diogo - tipped one day to be president - says she just treats it like a Mozambican woman who has to create a meal for a large family, often without ingredients.
	Bhutan to hold first national elections by Hindustan Times Bhutan   December 19, 2005   Bhutan, the Land of the Thunder Dragon, is reeling under shock and disbelief. The Himalayan kingdom is stunned by King Jigme Singye Wangchuk"s announcement about ending 100 years of royal rule in 2008 by abdicating the throne and holding the country"s first national elections.   "The entire nation was bewildered when the king made this surprise announcement of stepping down in favour of the crown prince and holding democratic elections," Kinley Dorji, editor of Bhutan"s national newspaper Kuensel, told the agency. "The people of Bhutan did not really expect this historic and dramatic decision to come so early."   The 50-year-old King Wangchuk on Saturday told a crowd of some 8,000 yak-herders, monks, farmers and students in Trashiyangtse village, about 900 km east of capital Thimphu, that he would step down. Crown Prince Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk, 25, would be enthroned as the new king before Bhutan adopts a constitution and goes to the first ever polls in 2008 to choose a prime minister under a parliamentary democracy.   The king would then be just a constitutional monarch, devoid of absolute power in the largely Buddhist nation of about 600,000 people.   People across the country received the king"s announcement with shock and disbelief. "I was shell-shocked and cried when I heard the news of our king deciding to step down," said Tushi Zemba, a hotelier at the Samdrup Jongkhar district, bordering India"s northeastern state of Assam.   Witnesses said hundreds of Buddhist monks were joined by locals across Bhutan in holding special prayers, unable to come to terms with the king"s announcement. "We have not yet understood what could be the implications when there is a change from monarchy to parliamentary democracy. We are offering prayers for the well being of the country," said R Gyeltshen, a retired government official in Thimphu.   The transition began four years ago when the king handed over powers of daily governance to a council of ministers and empowered the National Assembly to force a royal abdication if the motion was backed by three-quarters of its membership.   Bhutan earlier this year unveiled a 34-point constitution, which is now being sent to some 530,000 citizens for their views and was expected to be ratified after a referendum. Once adopted, the constitution will swap a royal decree of 1953 giving the monarchy absolute power and alter Bhutan into a parliamentary democracy.   King Wangchuk assumed the throne at the age of 16 in 1972, the fourth ruler in the Wangchuk dynasty that came to power in December 1907.   "Bhutan has seen a phenomenal socio-economic development during the rule of the present king with the country"s basic infrastructures like roads, hospitals, schools improving considerably," the Kuensel editor said. "The king"s decision to decentralise and devolve power was the high point of his rule."   Although the Bhutanese are silenced by the king"s dramatic decision, the crown prince is held in equally high esteem like his father. The Oxford-educated crown prince, the eldest of the king"s five sons and five daughters, received his official recognition as Prince on October 21, 2004. "The crown prince is a very popular figure in Bhutan and has been playing a major public role by taking active part in both government and non-government activities," said a Bhutanese government official who wished to remain anonymous. "There is absolutely no doubt about his capacity although a father (King Wangchuk) would always remain a father."   (The kingdom of Bhutan is a tiny and impoverished country nestled in the Himalayas between India and China).
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