50:50 campaigners for quota to boost women representation
The 50:50 Campaign Management Agency has asked political parties to implement the quota system of choosing executive committee members and candidates in the 2019 Tripartite Elections to boost women representation.
In a statement signed by ActionAid Malawi executive director Grace Malera and The 50-50 Campaign Management Agency team leader Viwemi Chavula, the campaigners urged the parties to translate rhetoric on increased women representation into tangible action and results through affirmative action measures at political party levels.
Reads the statement issued yesterday: “In light of the foregoing, we appeal to all political parties to ensure that the political party conventions put in place special resolutions, including: targets, quotas, special recruitment measures and training for women, that will ensure equal political representation of men and women in all elected and appointed positions at all levels of political party structures to make the 2019 Tripartite Elections more inclusive and democratic.”
The statement added that parties should also put in place measures to address adverse factors that negatively affect women from competing favourably in electoral processes, especially the issue of violence against women in politics.
“Several international agreements that Malawi has ratified provide guarantees for political parties’ commitment to ensuring equal representation of women and men in leadership positions.
“These include: the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action [1995], the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development [2008] provides for 50 percent representation of women in politics, and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women,” adds the statement.
The two organisations observed that women are underrepresented in positions of political leadership both at the party and national levels.
The call comes against a background of political parties holding conventions and planning primary elections to choose candidates for next year’s elections.
Yesterday, the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) held its convention in Blantyre while opposition Alliance for Democracy (Aford) and Malawi Congress Party (MCP) held theirs earlier in the year.
The United Democratic Front (UDF) is set to hold its elective convention from August 1 2018 while the People’s Party (PP) is yet to set a date for its national gathering.
