Party rules and nomination of female candidates

Political parties are supposed to conduct primary elections with the intention of choosing candidates that contest general elections on the party ticket. Primary elections set the stage for general elections. The first big step in the careers of most Members of Parliament (MPs) is to win primary elections conducted by their party in their constituency.

Political parties are responsible for setting the formal rules governing primary elections. The implication is that political parties play a significant gate-keeping role to Parliament.

A well meaning political party can have a policy of promoting women candidates at the national level but the policy may become ineffective when informal rules of the party come into play at the constituency level. Generally speaking, formal and informal rules coexist in most social settings and they will have case specific dynamics. They may reinforce each other, substitute each other and also compete with each other.

In order to maintain the spirit or intent of the party in promoting female candidates, formal rules should be clear, detailed as far as possible and need to be written. This is more so in constituencies where the party is strong and competition for the seat is tight. Ideally, it is in these constituencies that female candidates need to contest if they are to win parliamentary seats.

Formal rules for primary elections

Formal rules for candidate nomination are normally laid out by the party at its national executive level. Many parties in Malawi, as in the southern Africa region, have a basic set of rules governing primary elections. The rules remain basic in the sense that they leave some questions relating to how the elections will be conducted unanswered. The formal rules will usually cover issues such as the date and time when primary elections are conducted. These rules may also outline the choice of venue for the elections, contesting fees paid by aspiring candidates, roles of the presiding officer and the method of voting.

The formal rules of the party may also proclaim a policy of encouraging women candidates to contest in the primaries. Some parties may go as far as laying out a quota for women candidates contesting in their party. The rules may, however, fall short of outlining how this is to be achieved.

Complimentary informal rules in primary elections

There are many examples of informal rules that may take root in the candidate nomination process. Two specific examples are given here of informal rules that may arise when the formal rules are vague on the eligibility or personal attributes of aspirant candidates and on dispute settling mechanisms for the primary elections.

In the event that the rules are silent on qualification of candidates, it may become generally agreed in the constituency that the ideal candidate for the party is one that is ‘well behaved’. Through a rule such as this, female candidates are discredited and ‘disqualified’ because of the way they dress, speak or even their personal relationships. A female aspirant may be branded as difficult or arrogant just by the challenging nature of her speech. The same speech from a man would not make him a difficult or arrogant man.

Furthermore, it becomes possible for party members in the constituency to be led to believe that a woman is not suitable for office because she is not married or has not shown ability to manage her family. Owing to their source and a lack of transparency on formal party rules, these sentiments may become real and believable to party members.

Another example could be an informal rule that an eligible candidate should show the initiative and ability to undertake as well as finance development projects in the constituency. In the local language, ‘azikhala munthu wa chitukuko’. This kind of eligibility criteria adversely affects women candidates as most would not have the financial and networking resources that could enable them to sustain such projects. The problem becomes magnified when the aspirant competes with a male incumbent who already has developed a wider network of partners that he can count on.

The second example is where the formal rules are silent on dispute settling mechanisms for the primary elections. In such an instance, the male candidate who is challenged by the female candidate may resort to threats and intimidation in the emotionally charged atmosphere of the primary election process.

Supporters of the female candidate may be harassed, election dates and venues changed on an ad hoc basis and the woman may have nowhere to seek redress. Eventually, aspirant women candidates are put off from contesting in primary elections as they are not accustomed to these tactics.

It is important, therefore, that political parties soberly think through the formal rules for candidate nomination, especially for those parties that are claiming to be encouraging or, better still, promoting female candidates.