Political Parties

Ahead of a tripartite elections next year the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has shown the world that it is moving with time by setting a deliberate policy to allow women in the country pay 25 per cent less the  nomination fees of parliamentary and local government elections.

The female aspirants, Newstime Africa understands, will pay K 150,000.00 only for the parliamentary race while those going for the ward councillorship will cough K 15,000.00 only.

Marlyse Aboui, a 40-year-old nurse, has still not gotten over the astonishment she felt when she heard that Cameroon’s President Paul Biya had nominated her to the senate.

Women’s participation in politics remains low due to several bottlenecks hindering efforts to ensure that men and women share 50% representation in the political arena by 2015 in line with the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development.

The distribution of reserved seats for women in the National Assembly to wives, daughters, or relatives of top party stalwarts while ignoring women at the grass-roots level, has badly tarnished the image of major political parties.

Marlyse Aboui, a 40-year-old nurse, has still not gotten over the astonishment she felt when she heard that Cameroon’s President Paul Biya had nominated her to the senate.

The gender divide is systematic in Pakistan’s electoral system. Not only that women were barred from voting or contesting in parts of Pakistan, they were not even registered as voters in many other parts. In fact, Pakistan counted 11 million fewer women registered voters than men in the recent elections.