Between June 10 and July 5, presidential, parliamentary and local government aspirants for the September 16 General Elections will collect nomination forms and present them to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) as an application package for their candidature.
The National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust says it hopes more women will collect the nomination papers and file them with the MEC, as there have been more efforts calling for more women’s spaces in political leadership.
With support from the European Union through the Malawi Democratic Governance Programme – Boma Lathu project, NICE has been conducting activities, including capacity building sessions for female aspirants, to help clear obstacles that hinder women’s participation as candidates in politics.
During a day-long training for female aspirants in Kasungu District recently, Shilla Kasakula-Nkhata, a Malawi Congress Party (MCP) aspiring candidate for Misozi Ward in the district’s south constituency, said the September elections are a perfect chance for women to challenge male dominance in leadership positions.
“We are ready for the stage. There are no fears. This is the perfect time to check the male dominance that has been there for years.
“All women who are planning to contest in these elections – wherever they are – must not back off. They must stand firm and believe in themselves that they can win,” Kasakula-Nkhata said.
She bemoaned the violence that characterises the election season in the country, saying it is one of the factors discouraging women from taking active roles in politics.
UTM Party aspirant for Ngulu ya Nawambe Ward in Kasungu Municipality Constituency, Pilirani Malambo, said it was ironic that there are fewer women than men in leadership positions, yet most of the voters are females.
“This year, we must challenge the status quo and rewrite the history of our politics. We need more women leaders regardless of which party they come from.
“Just as women dominate in voting, the same must be reflected in the positions. But we will not get that on a silver platter. We have to push and achieve it,” she said.
Preliminary voter registration figures, as presented by the MEC, show that out of the 7.2 million registrants for the forthcoming polls, at least 57 percent are female.
Lima Loka, who will represent the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kaswalipande Ward in the Municipality, says the country stands to benefit more if there are more women in leadership positions.
Her sentiments were echoed by Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) aspirant for Chankhanga Ward, Gomezgani Mhango, who added that the campaign for more women leaders must not be understood as a war against men.
She said, “We must not look down upon ourselves. Women have great potential to be agents of development. All we need is to support one another so that we take these positions in large numbers. It’s not a war against men.”
In the previous six general elections, including the 2019 tripartite polls, women performed dismally, such that their numbers in both Parliament and Councils have been a source of concern for the country that is striving to promote and empower women.
In part, NICE, through the Boma Lathu project, is seeking to contribute towards reversing this trend.
Its Programmes Officer for Kasungu, Gerald Chirwa, said it is concerning that women have not fared well in all the past elections, emphasizing the need to raise the voice calling for their rightful spaces in political leadership.
“If we reflect on the 2019 elections, the story is of much concern that some districts did not produce even a single woman Member of Parliament (MP) or Councillor.
“Our attitude towards women, as manifested in their dismal presence in political leadership positions, needs some action and NICE is carrying out activities under the Boma Lathu programme to reduce or reverse this unfortunate trend,” Chirwa said.
Generally, activities under the Boma Lathu are designed to contribute towards advancing democracy, human rights and the rule of law with a focus on promoting inclusive, transparent and credible electoral processes and a pluralist democratic system.
According to Chirwa, the interventions also seek to promote universal values of human rights for all, particularly women’s and girls’ rights, including tools for the effective exercise of human rights such as civil registration and civic education.
“Specifically, we want to contribute to strengthening democratic governance and increasing participation, in particular of women, youth and disadvantaged groups in democratic processes.
“So, NICE is employing strategies and methodologies that should help women and youths to make significant strides in this sector by addressing bottlenecks that are prevalent at the grassroots,” Chirwa said.
He said the role of women must not be limited to casting a ballot, but that they must be willing enough to contest as candidates.
Currently, women constitute 13 percent of the Councillors and only 21 percent of the 193 MPs in the country, which not only makes change more difficult but also implies that laws, budgets, and policies can produce discriminatory outcomes.
Gender equality campaigners argue that without equality in representation, the voices and perspectives of women cannot be fully reflected in the work of the parliament and laws that are passed may be biased against women, and the focus of any government scrutiny is less likely to focus on issues important to women.
Cultural attitudes and the monetisation of campaign and politics in general feature highly as factors hindering women’s participation.
However, amongst the efforts to clear hindrances for the perceived potential but disadvantaged groups like women, the MEC, just like in the previous elections, has announced reduced nomination fees for women, youths and persons with disabilities.
While there is no consideration for the candidates at the presidential level with fees pegged at MK10 million for all, women, youths and persons with disabilities will deposit 50 percent less than male candidates in both local government and parliamentary categories.
Chirwa says this should encourage more women to submit their nominations to contest in the elections.
“The progression of women’s representation has been far too slow. We need to up the game, and that is exactly what we at NICE are doing,” Chirwa said.
He challenged the women aspirants to take the 2025 elections as an opportunity to claim their deserved space in the political arena and thus increase their numbers in key decision-making positions.
Malawi is a signatory to various protocols that seek to promote women’s participation in politics and general decision-making processes, including the Beijing Platform for Action, which calls for equal participation in decision-making and leadership.
The MW2030 agenda for Sustainable Development underscores the need and urgency to achieve gender parity in leadership, calling for “women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership in political, economic and public life.”
On her part, Principal Secretary in the Department of Civic Education and Unity, Elizabeth Chindevu Gomani, said even though there are many laws and policies in place to protect women’s rights, they are poorly implemented because society and social institutions do not fundamentally support them.
She said the country needs to decisively deal with the vice that women cannot be leaders, particularly in politics.
“This belief has to be challenged because it has the potential to affect the realisation of the aspiration of inclusive wealth creation and attainment of self-reliance as reflected in the Malawi 2063.
“Politics is not exclusively a men’s arena; rather, it is a space for representatives of all ages, genders, races, and ethnicities to come and make decisions together. It would be imperative to make the political environment more fair, competitive, respectful of human rights, and inclusive.”
