Do women practice candidacy withdrawals more often?

In case of women, the institute of candidacy withdrawal was primarily applied for candidates nominated for the community head positions. According to the data of the Central Electoral Commission, during the elections held on September 18 and October 2, 59 women were initially nominated for the community head positions; after candidacy withdrawals, 26 women remained and only nine were ultimately elected. Moreover, seven of the elected women were reelected. 

 Observations demonstrate that women practice candidacy withdrawals more frequently. Thus, in the September 18^th elections, out of 548 citizens registered as candidates for the community head positions, 140 submitted candidacy withdrawal applications, i.e. one fourth. Out of 21 women nominated for the community head positions, eleven withdrew their candidacies, i.e. half of all the nominated. 

By the way, as a result of candidacy withdrawals, only one candidate was voted for in 125 communities out of the total 237 that were to elect community heads, i.e. it is obvious that at least 125 citizens out of those who practiced candidacy withdrawals were “not real” candidates from the start and were nominated just to ensure the registration of their relative or superior since the law forbids elections with one candidate. By the way, the women candidates who practiced candidacy withdrawals were primarily ordinary workers at village municipalities and community structures. Similar cases are undoubtedly not conducive to raising the already low political rating of women, once again reinforcing the public opinion that women are not serious competitors and that they are manageable and unable to independently act and make decisions.  They are right when they say that women having entered politics begin to assume responsibility not only for their own deeds, but for their entire sex.

We should note that in the cases of candidates for councilor positions, the proportion of women and men who applied candidacy withdrawals was almost the same.