Blow to women participation in politics! Only 326 female parliamentary candidates in September election

Only 326 women have been approved as valid parliamentary candidates in the forthcoming general election, a development which is seen to have dealt another major blow to a perennial  national multi-stakeholder campaign promoting women participation in politics and leadership positions.

The featured female parliamentary aspirants in the 16^th September election do not even reach a quarter of the total figure of 1488 candidates, seemingly frustrating the 50:50 campaign being championed by the NGO-Gender Coordination Network (NGO-GCN) and other local and international partners, among others.

The figure was arrived at following an analysis of a public notice signed by Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Chairperson Annabel Mtalimanja, which announced the publication of the long list of valid parliamentary candidates in the forthcoming election.

But NGO-GCN Chairperson, Maggie Kathewera Banda, expressed optimism on the future of the 50:50 campaign which, among others, seeks to achieve 50 percent women representation in Parliament and local government authorities.

According to the MEC data, the female candidates are well-spread all over Malawi, demonstrating women vested interest to participate in parliamentary elections in various constituencies in district, city, municipal and town councils.

Lilongwe City Council has outshined all others, featuring an impressive number of 34 female candidates.

Next are Lilongwe District Council, Blantyre City Council, Zomba District Council and Mzimba District Council, with 23, 18, 16 and 15, respectively.

Dowa and Thyolo have 14 each, followed by Mangochi and Machinga, that have 13 and 12, respectively.

Zeroing in on the data, Banda said the “situation is not really bad”.

“It is not bad and not the best but still a good start if we go by the difficult context that women operate in,” she said.

“This is how we expect the campaign we are championing to progress anyway, considering that it is not easy for women to open up and come out”.

Other districts that have featured more women include: Nkhata Bay (11), Nkhotakota (11), Mchinji (11), Ntcheu (11), Balaka (11) and Phalombe (11).

Kasungu, Chikwawa, Dedaza and Blantyre District Council have 10 each.