Lack of female presidential candidates shows Malawi not progressing

The 2019 Parliamentary, Presidential and Local Government elections will be remembered for the heightened campaign to see more women elected into higher office, through the 50-50 Campaign.

While some progress was made on the parliamentary and local government fronts, attempts to see more women in the highest office of President were thwarted, as the only woman who had intended to contest, former president Joyce Banda withdrew her candidature to support the Malawi Congress Party.

News that the May 21, 2019 presidential election results had been nullified by the courts offered a new window of opportunity for women who constitute over 52 percent of Malawians to actively participate. But when the final list of nine  political party and possible independent candidates for the July 21 election was released by the Malawi Electoral Commission, women were conspicuously missing. It means no woman will make it onto the ballot paper as a presidential candidate.

 

Ras Chikomeni Chirwa had intended to have his mother (in orange) as running mate but they were disqualified

A women's rights activist, Maggie Kathewera Banda who runs Women's Legal Resource Centre (Worlec) has described the lack of women contestants in the re-run as unfortunate.

"But may be it may be coming from the political parties where they don't feel confident enough to feature women. But it could be a result of the negative society attitudes towards women's participation," she said.

Kathewera Banda also worried that the situation shows that Malawi was not progressing.

"It's time Malawi learnt from other countries. Actually women have proved to be good leaders. For example articles have been written on how female Prime Ministers are handling the coronavirus pandemic," she said.

The countries she is talking about include Taiwan, New Zealand and Germany.

Earlier in March, the United Nations also expressed concern over the absence of a female presidential candidate in the forthcoming fresh elections and called for more investment in women with leadership qualities to lead Malawi.

“Unfortunately for Malawi we don’t have any women in these polls. We need to continue investing in those women who have the leadership qualities to lead this country. I mean it’s not for this election but maybe for the next. It’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” she said, adding, more needs to be done with the support of political parties, government, parliament and at the school level to encourage women become future Presidents of Malawi.

Studies show that women with leadership credentials are wary of 'soiling their reputation' by joining frontline politics.

Joyce Banda became Malawi’s only and first female President on 7th April 2012 to 31st May 2014 by default following the death of President Bingu Wa Mutharika due to a cardiac arrest.

The last time Malawi featured women in a presidential election was in 2014 when then incumbent president Joyce Banda sought and failed to get her own mandate. She was joined on the ballot by the late Hellen Singh who also had a female running mate. Banda finished third in that election.