Election campaigning is underway in Papua New Guinea with strong participation from women who are "young and determined".
Although there are 86 women candidates standing in this year's elections compared with 167 in 2017, campaigners are pushing for a female presence in the Parliament and are hopeful that attitudes will change.
Provincial Logistics Assistants attending a pre-election workshop in Port Moresby Photo: Supplied
RNZ Pacific's Papua New Guinea correspondent Scott Waide said seeing women come out to campaign is encouraging.
"There's a lot of women who have come out and they're younger, quite determined, very focused, and for me it is very encouraging to see that. They're also on the campaign trail looking for a lot of collaborations with other parties as well."
There have been just seven women elected to the PNG parliament in its nearly 50 years of existence, with none in the current parliament.
Electioneering is ramping up in Papua New Guinea with some violence already being reported in parts of the country.
In preliminary figures released by the Electoral Commission when nominations closed last week - there were 2,351 candidates registered, compared with 3,332 in 2017.
Waide said the violence that has emerged isn't as widespread compared to previous elections.
"There's been a fair deal of violence - sporadic violence in various parts of the country driven largely by clashes of ideas and political opinion and also the clashes between supporters. It's not as widespread as we've previously seen but there's some instances of violence."
The country will go to the polls for three weeks from July 2.
