Gender, elections and 50/50

Whenever there is an election in the country, be it general or local government elections, women make up the majority of the voters, yet they are hardly present in decision making structures. Women bear the brunt of social ills and cast their votes in the hope to improve their lives and those of their families. Women suffer more from water shortages and poor infrastructure, and these problems could be addressed effectively if fellow women held the top positions.

Article 13 of SADC Gender Protocol, of which Tanzania is signatory, provides that state parties shall adopt specific legislative measures and other strategies to enable women to have equal opportunities with men, to participate in all electoral processes including contesting for various leadership positions and voting. However, the Commonwealth Observer Group Report of the 2010 Tanzania General Election noted that out of 1,036 candidates who vied for parliamentary seats, less than 200 were women. Similarly the December 2014 Local Government elections saw few women contesting.

Article 146 sections 2(a) of the United Republic of Tanzania constitution of 1977 provides one of the functions of the local government is to strengthen democracy and to bring about development.

In the Ubungo Ward and Regent Estate Mikocheni, many women registered as voters, but in all seven streets (2 for Mikocheni and 5 for Ubungo), not even a single woman contested for the chairperson during the local government elections. The few that did contest, only applied for representative positions. But still, their numbers were few. For example, at Ali-Hassan Mwinyi Street, only four women out of 15 candidates applied for representative positions.

Miriam Elisha, a woman from Ubungo Ward who tried to contest for the top post in her street, but her application was denied. “I went to my party office to apply for a chairperson position but then I was informed that the only position I was allowed to apply for was the women special seats. As for the top post, I was told to leave it for men”.

Chairperson of Mikocheni A, Bernard Lwehabura explained that despite the low numbers, he has faith in women’s leadership. “They can do very well if given a chance. They can lead even better than men. Women are smart members of parliament. Halima Mdee proved this through her effective leadership”, he said.

By giving women equal opportunities in leadership we are giving them the chance to push forward the gender agenda including finding solution to social problems which affect women more than men. Government may have missed the 2015 target of achieving 50/50 in local government, but the country must not give up. With the general elections coming up later this year, women and men of Tanzania must push the envelope and ensure women’s presence is at its highest both among voters and political contenders.

This article formed part of a gender, media and elections training offered by GL in collaboration with the University of Dar es Salaam. Students wrote articles during and just after the 2014 Local Government Elections in Tanzania in order to put into practice gender sensitive and responsive elections reporting.