Lord Mayor Sumtoh hopes for reserved seats for women in Parliament

The Lord Mayor of Port Vila, Ulrich Sumptoh, says the contribution of the five female councilors in the city’s municipal council has helped immensely in improving the financial situation of the council with outstanding debts of many years now starting to be paid off.

He said this massive result was “due to the leadership the female councilors have brought into the council, which is different from men because the women often want things to be done correctly”.

Lord Mayor Sumptoh made the comment in front of the five female councilors of Luganville with two male champion councilors and the Port Vila female councilors on a three-day exchange program when they visited Port Vila Town Hall Tuesday morning.

“Female councilors in the Port Vila Municipal Council have influenced the change in groupings inside the council and also the most impact of the women is in the financial situation of the council, which today we are starting to recover from debt burdens. And we are starting to save some money to help with services to the people of the city of Port Vila,” he added.

This exchange is the first one between female councilors of Luganville and Port Vila since the reserved seats for women was first introduced in Port Vila two years ago and Luganville late last year. And Lord Mayor Sumptoh said the exchange will help to strengthen the work of councilors in the two municipalities of Port Vila and Luganville.

“Hopefully this exchange will lead to similar reserved seats for women in Provincial Councils and also the Parliament of Vanuatu.”

As part of their field visits, the group visited a project being undertaken by Councilor Rose Peter of North Ward with the assistance of Unelco to fence off the area of the water source of Port Vila below Freswota 6 to ensure it is protected from human habitation, gardening and other activities.

The group also visited the home of Councilor Peter where she runs a kindergarten with 20 children and a clinic that receives up to 10 to 11 patients every day. The salary of the kindergarten teacher and the retired male nurse are paid by the female councilor.

From there, the group visited a newly-established office for Anabrou Ward, a joint initiative of the Lord Mayor the Deputy Lady Mayor Leimara Malachi who are both from the ward, and the first for Port Vila Municipality. The Councilors from Luganville joined with their Port Vila counterparts, the Director of the Department of Women’s Affairs and her staff in witnessing the joint opening of the Anabrou ward office by the Deputy Lady Mayor and the Director of DWA, Doresthy Watson.

On behalf of the Luganville council female councilors, male champion Councilor Hilton Toares thanked the female councilors of Port Vila, the Director DWA and staff for the exchange, the visits and said they have learned much from the visits.

“We will be thinking a lot about what we have seen and experienced during this exchange and how we can put into effect some of the ideas we have seen here when we go back to Luganville,” he added.