Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung@ 40 in Ghana Following the return to constitutional rule after years of military dictatorship, there was a significant increase in the number of women elected into Parliament under the Fourth Republic. As indicated in Table 1 below, 16 women were elected in 1992 increasing to 18 in 1996 and 19 in 2000. In the year 2004 the number again increased to 25. However in 2008 the country has witnessed a deviation in terms of the number of women elected parliament with a drop from 25 to 20. Although the number of women elected into parliament in previous elections was low, the trend was positive as the numbers kept increasing although insignificantly as shown in the table, expect in the 2008 elections. Table 1: Women's Participation in Elections from 1992-2008 (Electoral Commission data). No. of candidates No. elected Total no of s e a t s in Parliament Percentage(%) in Parliament 1992 23 1996 53 2000 95 2004 104 2008 103 16 18 19 25 20 200 200 230 230 230 8.0 9.0 9.5 10.9 8.6 As elected members, women's participation in local government is extremely low and not related to their proportion in the population. There is evidence however that even though participation stands at a low of 10.1%, representation has been increasing over time as the table below indicates: 28