Chisomo Ngulube Writes

  Women and women’s rights activists have come out guns blazing to condemn President Peter Mutharika for insinuating that former President Joyce Banda is a woman of loose morals. Speaking in his native Thyolo after coming out of his cocoon to join the campaign trail, Mutharika sought to hit back at Banda for calling him a drunkard at an earlier rally. But Mutharika went beyond clarifying the drinking issue to describe Malawi’s first female president’s behaviour as promiscuous.

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.