CMD encourages political parties to promote women’s participation in politics

The Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) has said a code of conduct for political parties is expected to promote inclusivity, gender-responsive, and violence-free primary elections for the forthcoming 2025 tripartite elections in the country.

Vice chairperson of CMD, Ben Chakhame, called for collaborative efforts from all project partners in engaging with political parties and key stakeholders to enhance the gender equitable conduct of primary elections.

According to CMD, the project is based on the identification of challenges and recommendations from previous primary elections held in 2018-2019.

Chakhame said that the focus of the partners is on activities that promote gender equality during political party primaries, which includes establishing gender equal standards, addressing violence against women in elections, ensuring access to justice for women affected by violence, and supporting female prospective candidates for effective participation in the primaries.

He further stated that the purpose of the code of conduct is to create a conducive environment that supports women’s political participation by preventing discrimination and violence, implementing gender-responsive actions that uphold women’s right to political participation, and establishing gender-sensitive mechanisms for handling complaints with confidentiality and without victimization.

“The objective of the event is for political parties to adopt and sign the model code of conduct which has been developed together with political parties. This follows an engagement meeting with the six political parties such as Malawi Congress Party (MCP), Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), People’s Party (PP), United Democratic Front (UDF) and United Transformation Movement (UTM) conducted on 25 th July 2024 to review the draft mode code of conduct,” said Chakhame.

On her part, the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Publicity Secretary, Jessie Kabwira, appealed for an urgency to political parties to address the issue of women’s violence and participation in politics.

“MCP will be holding policy conferences aimed at promoting women’s participation in politics and putting women on top position as well as encouraging women to take part in all regions across the country,” said Kabwira.

Similarly, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Director of Legal Affairs, Chipiliro Mpinganjira, reaffirmed the party’s commitment to promoting women’s participation in politics through deliberate strategies that encourage women to seek party and top elected positions.

“As DPP will continue to empower women’s participation in politics and heading top positions as currently DPP women tops positions of parliamentary committees,” said Mpinganjira.