Turkey poll unlikely to deliver many more women MPs

ANKARA, July 18 (Reuters) A bid to radically lift the number of women elected to Turkey's parliament, which has one of the lowest levels of female representation in the world, looks set to fail this Sunday.

Activists had hoped women could take 10 per cent of all seats in parliament, well above the 4.4 per cent obtained in 2002 and the record of 4.6 per cent set in 1935, a decade after modern Turkey was founded after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

But that will likely fail as not enough women are running, and those who are candidates are often too low on the electoral lists to have a realistic chance of getting elected in the system of weighted proportional representation.

''There really was hope, everyone said there would be more women ... but the number of women in electable spots is not as high as women and women's organisations had hoped,'' said Democrat Party candidate Ayse Sayli, a doctor.

''We had hoped for 10 percent this time but that won't be the case unfortunately,'' said Sayli, whose party has fielded 19 per cent women candidates but may fail to enter parliament.

Low representation of women is particularly important in a country where some of the worst social problems concern women.

While women are well represented at the top of academia and law, millions of rural women have not benefited from the reforms of modern Turkey. Female illiteracy is around 20 per cent, honour killings are common, only 72 per cent of girls enrol in secondary school and workforce participation is low.

The European Union, which mainly Muslim Turkey hopes to join, has also made women's rights an entry issue, and a lack of women in parliament could delay equality reforms.

The ruling AK Party, which is expected to win the election, has increased women's share of its list to 11 per cent, from 6 per cent in 2002, according to the Association for the Support and Training of Women Candidates (KA-DER). CHP is fielding 10 per cent women compared with 8 per cent last time and MHP -- which polls show could also enter parliament -- has 6 percent, from 4 per cent in 2002.

WINDOW-DRESSING? A UN-sponsored survey showed 82 per cent of Turks want more women in politics, but leaders do not see them as a vote winner.

''Political parties think women vote according to how their husbands vote. That was the case but it's changing,'' said Hulya Gulbahar, chairwoman of KA-DER.

Parties in Turkey are traditionally tightly controlled by their male bosses without much internal democracy, and leaders choose the pecking order of candidates on electoral lists.

The leaders of the main parties have put only a few women in the top slots, making the rest unlikely to get in. Women-friendlier parties are not expected to cross the high 10 per cent threshold needed for a party to enter parliament.

Although parties offered incentives to female candidates and the leader of the AK Party called for 81 women to stand -- one for each province and potentially over 20 per cent of the party's seats, there have been accusations these moves were little more than marketing spin.

Some commentators say the AK Party increased the number of women candidates to help convince voters it has moved away from its Islamist past to become a secular centre-right party.

''He (Erdogan) wants to give the image that they are moving more to the centre and are more liberal,'' said Ayse Ayata, professor of politics and gender studies at Ankara's Middle East Technical University. ''They are promoting some of the very liberal and western-looking women.'' One such liberal and highly educated woman is 42-year-old academic Zeynep Dagi, who stands a good chance of getting elected as she is number five on the list for Ankara.

She rejects accusations the AK Party is window-dressing and calculates 35 to 40 AK Party women are in electable spots, which could account for 10 percent of AK Party's parliamentary group.

''Women are strong in the party base, it's not a question of using women to window-dress ... I don't want to just be identified as a woman, I want my individual and political identity to stand out,'' she said.

Women have played a crucial role drumming up support for political parties in recent years and some analysts say the AK Party's 2002 victory was won in part by women's door-to-door campaigning. But while they do the leg work, women's branches have no official power or budget.

Activists want to change that, and reform election rules so the public elects candidates directly rather than via lists.

Some say lifting a ban on Muslim headscarves in parliament -- part of a wider ban affecting universities and public buildings -- would also raise the number of women candidates.

If re-elected, Erdogan will come under renewed pressure from supporters to ease the controversial headscarf ban, raising the possibility that by Turkey's next general election one obstacle in women's way could have been removed.

REUTERS LPB PM2130