To screen or not to screen?

An interesting debate has surfaced around women candidates in the upcoming general election. Caroline Mariu of East Guadalcanal has made a call for the National Council of Women to screen all women candidates. The reasoning being that a) people should be aware of the backgrounds and qualities of candidates, and b) that the NCW should do so since it has been associated with the emergence of many women candidates (indeed its president is a candidate, and the only one to have been an MP in the past)

The NCW however, has ruled itself out of any vetting process, saying that while it trained many candidates, "it did not mean that they have a fair knowledge of every female candidate". While the point is valid, it will be hard to dissociate the backing, training and publicity that NCW has provided for women candidacy in general, from the candidates themselves. It will be particularly hard if candidates campaign on a "women's platform" or use the NCW activities in supporting women leadership, in their campaign trail.

But its even harder to shake the feeling that a chance for women to break with politics as usual, has been missed. Defences for inaction on issues of rigour and critical assessment in have been too common in SI (male) politics so far. Is this an early indicator that women are going down the same road?