Hopes that women will get to play a more significant role in the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party suffered a setback on Saturday after the party rejected a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at women in the party.

Out of 13 amendments presented to delegates and party chiefs at the elective national convention in the Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, only one failed to scale through; section 29 (1)(b).

If passed, the provision would have made it mandatory for the PDP to have one female national chairman.

But the proposed amendment only got 917 favourable votes out of the required 1,416 votes. A total of 1,194 of the 2,124 delegates that voted said ‘No’ to it.

This decision means the National Woman Leader as the only female among the highest decision-making body of the party, the National Working Committee (NWC).

Despite rejecting plans for one of the party’s Deputy National Chairman to be a woman, the delegates approved amendments to Section 8 which deals with the process of rejoining the party.

Amendments to were also made to Section 50 on ‘waiver’, the preamble, Section 29 (1)(5) on the national vice chairman becoming members of the National Working Committee, among others.