admin
Remember Deketeke, Herald Correspondent
The Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) has bemoaned the low participation of women in politics calling for the enactment of Gender Equality Act to ensure 50 percent representation that will promote and protect women.
This came out during the launch of the 2023 Elections Gender Observatory Report on last year’s parliamentary and council elections by the ZGC yesterday.
The report undertook a long-term election observation and monitoring mission for the 2023 election cycle with a particular focus on biometric voter registration, nomination court process, pre-election environment monitoring, polling and post-polling monitoring.
Giving his keynote address, acting chairperson of the ZGC, Commissioner Obert Matshalaga said the report was comprehensive and reflected regressing trends in political participation of women at all levels.
“This comprehensive approach to monitoring the electoral process allowed for a more thorough understanding of the barriers to women’s participation in politics and provided insights into the potential solutions to address these issues,” he said.
“It is, however, worrisome to note that the outcome of the 2023 harmonised elections reflects regressing trends in women’s political participation at all levels starting at the level of fielding candidates to the outcome of the elections.
“In 2018, we had a total of four (19 percent) women contesting for the presidential post in relation to one (8 percent) who participated in the 2023 elections; in the National Assembly 243 women (15 percent of the total) contested in 2018 against 70 (11 percent) in 2023.
“At the local government level 1 155 women (17 percent of the total) contested in the 2018 elections versus 735 (15,1 percent) in 2023.”
United Nations Development Programme governance unit team leader Ms Tafadzwa Muvingi said it was important for stakeholders to allocate adequate resources to ensure effective gender equality and women’s political participation.
“I want to recognise that the national budgeting season is fast approaching.
“The budget consultations have started with the conversations already going,” she said.
“And relevant stakeholders must bear the responsibility to advocate for adequate allocation through the various tools that we have in terms of gender responsive budgeting and other tools that we can use to accrue the resources that we need to act.”
Online Reporter