women and political parties

Zimbabwe currently has 85 women parliamentarians in the National Assembly compared to 185 men.

This means that the country would not meet the 2015 Sadc deadline, as the next elections in Zimbabwe are only expected in 2018.

Of the 85 women parliamentarians, only 25 were directly elected to Parliament while the other 60 are in the House of Assembly courtesy of a constitutional provision which reserves seats for women.

Five women have successfully gone through vetting to contest positions in the Jirapa constituency election of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Upper West Region.

Mr Richard Kuunaah, Executive Director of GHANACare, a non-governmental organization, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Sunyani on Thursday that women participation in politics in the Jirapa Distict had increased significantly.

Women candidates affiliated to major political parties contesting in the upcoming CA election have accused their parties of not being supportive toward them at all.

Speaking at an interaction on ´Media Monitoring: Representation of Women in Constituent Assembly and Women Issue´ organized in the capital, Hisila Yami, a UCPN (Maoist) candidate for Kathmandu´s constituency 7 and a former minister, said that she had to struggle a lot to secure her candidacy as a direct candidate.