-abandon first past the post system
SHANNISE DZOBO
MASVINGO -Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE) has said that the figures of female representation in the National Assembly has fallen short of the 50% benchmark set by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Declaration on Gender and Development, The Midweek Watch has learnt.
In a report released yesterday WALPE said that, in the last week harmonised elections, 637 contestants who were vying for the National Assembly seats only 70 were women drawn from all political parties and independent candidates compared to 2018 elections where 237 out of 1 648 were women and this represents a decline from 14% to 11%.
The final results from Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) show that only 22 women candidates were successfully elected as Members of Parliament which then is translates to 10% women representation in National Assembly and the figure has fallen from 25 women (11.9%) who won in the 2018 elections and also all women candidates from smaller political parties as well as independent candidates failed to get any seats.
“All these figures fall short of the 30% minimum set out in the 1997 SADC Declaration on Gender and Development, Zimbabwe’s Constitutional provisions of gender equality found in Sections 17, 56 and 80, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 which seeks to promote gender equality and empower all women and girls as well as the 50% benchmark set by the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.
“Going forward, it is imperative that political parties not only incorporate clauses on gender equality into their internal documents and policies as a way of ensuring that women are adequately represented in leadership and decision-making positions, but also demonstrate a political will and sincerity to the achievement of equality”.
WALPE went on to recommend that the electoral voting system must be changed from the first past the post to proportional representation (with a list in zebra format) as this guarantees gender equality and also citizens must vote for political parties not individuals as this also insulates women from political violence and vote buying.
It also said that political parties should conduct their internal candidate selection process in a manner that allows women, young women and women with disabilities to participate freely and fairly with zero tolerance to all forms of political violence.
They also recommended that political parties have policies that push for the advancement of women in leadership and decision-making positions, adopt gender equality provisions into their constitutions and field women constituencies where they have a higher chance of winning.
WALPE also recommended that ZEC rejects all political party lists that do not have a zebra format going forward and also that the Electoral Act be aligned to the Constitution with regards to gender equality.
