ZGC laments election of few women during polls

Zimbabwe Gender Commission

Thandeka Moyo, Chronicle Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) has lamented the election of a few women into the National Assembly in the July 30 harmonised polls.

In a statement, the ZGC urged members of the public and politicians to ensure gender equality in all programmes as stipulated in the Constitution.

“Although there was an increase in female presidential candidates, we noted that they were subjected to unfair media and public scrutiny compared to the males.  The conscious targeting of women as voters, candidates and election officials in hate speech, inflammatory language and cyber bullying was prevalent,” said the commission.

The organisation said there was lack of legislation to compel political parties to comply with constitutional provisions to ensure the implementation of the parity principle in drawing up party lists.

It said political parties should observe the gender parity by mainstreaming gender in their party constitutions, policies, structures and processes.

“Although women constituted the majority of voters, their participation as candidates was limited as evidenced by the low number of women who succeeded in the primary elections of different parties. Only 15 percent of female candidates made it as at National Assembly and 17 percent at local Government,” reads the statement.

“In the actual election, the results show that only 12, 4 percent were elected outside the women’s quota for National Assembly.”

ZGC also recommended that the parity principle in the appointment of the next Cabinet and other senior government positions be taken into account.

It said during the elections, it noted that while women were majority in terms of numbers, more men occupied decision making positions across all levels.

It said Constituency elections officers and presiding officers within the election management system were men while women occupied mostly administrative and support functions.  — @thamamoe

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