Zimbabwe

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.

A REGIONAL research body, Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU), has said although Zimbabwean women are largely marginalised, they still exerted a lot of influence through voting even in the face of serious fears about violence during elections.

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Her confirmation in the position will take place at the party congress scheduled for December this year. This would propel her into the party's powerful politburo and mark her official entrance into politics.

As a member of the supreme decision-making body the former presidential typist will play an active role in the battle to succeed her husband, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.

No less than 35 percent of the newly elected MPs in Zimbabwe are women, thanks to a special electoral quota system to increase women's representation in Parliament. At age 29, Tionei Melody Dziva is the youngest of them. She has a strong desire to uplift the lives of women and youths.

Government should support women participation in politics as they can contribute immensely to the development of the country, a senior official with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said.

ZEC deputy chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe said the participation of women in politics had remained low because of several bottlenecks, a development that is likely to hamper the country's quest to have men and women share 50 percent representation in the political landscape by 2015 in line with the Sadc protocol on gender and development.

Amnesty International reports that especially in Zimbabwe's rural areas, away from any accountability, allies of Mugabe have been targeting opposition's female political activists.

An election victory by Robert Mugabe and his party usually means trouble for opposition supporters in Zimbabwe, especially those living in remote rural areas.