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As the world celebrates the 2016 International Women Day (IWD) yesterday, a leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ablekuma West Constituency, has also been attacking her party’s tendency making it impossible for women to attain higher positions.

The maverick MP, who is currently struggling to retain her seat as a parliamentary candidate for the aforementioned area, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, lamented over her party’s misogynistic stance against female politicians; a situation she noted, was making the party unattractive to the larger women population.

According to her, the internal structures of the NPP are not women-friendly; and thwart them from ascending to leadership positions; arguing further that, the only position up for grab by women in the NPP, has been the National Women Organizer, which of course – by party Constitution – cannot be contested by men.

“So its not surprising that its only the Women’s Organizer who makes it unto executive positions being put in place by the party; when you juxtapose that against the previous national executives which had three women, we have come down to one women, and even the appointed positions…they could have appointed more women to make up for the short fall;” Hon Owusu-Ekuful noted.

“It’s really tough and not many stand up against the daily challenges that we face externally and internally; and this is not just about political opponent; even the internals structures in our part are not conducive for full participation of women. And no matter how hard you try it’s as if they are beginning to double their heels,” Ursula Owusu reportedly said, exposing their party’s dislike for women.

Speaking on Kumasi-based Ultimate Fm, the Ablekuma West MP revealed; “so the party has a challenge, and it’s not that I want to air our dirty linen. But increasingly, we are being seen as not being accommodating to women and we need to do extra work to make us more attractive to women, we are there, we want to work. But somehow when we go through election process. It throws out the women; she added.

“But the party that articulates the rights of women, for me being a women’s rights activist in NPP, am particularly distressed that the results from the ground seem to demonstrate that the leadership of the party into a more women-friendly is out of sync with the voting population of the party,” she observed.

Madam Owusu-Ekuful, also bemoaned how the political terrain in the country is skewed to favour the male population; indicating that the country can only see the full participation of women in the governance process in Ghana, if women are not discriminated against.

“The political terrain is skewed in favour of men and the whole country … they are just giving us little space to operate as if they are doing us a favour; but we need to recognize that women form 31% of the population, and we are in-dispensable to the holistic development of our country;” she challenged.

“If we think we need women in governance, then we need to rethink our way of conducting politics in the country and make it a bit more women-friendly, as it is now, it’s very difficult for women in the political sphere in this country;” she concluded.

The MP for Ablekuma West explained that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for women to hold their heads up in the political space in the country.