Chisomo Ngulube Writes

  When Malawians vote for a President in a fresh poll set for Tuesday June 23, 55.6 percent of the 6,859,570 registered voters will be women. On the ballot paper is the incumbent, seeking re-election Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party, Malawi Congress Party President Lazarous Chakwera and Mbakuwaku Movement for Development president Peter Kuwani and their running mates, all men.

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.

Malawians will vote in Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections in a few days time. Figures released by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) show that 55 out of the every 100 voters in the Southern African country’s May 21 Tripartite Elections will be women. In fact, in some areas such as the lake shore district of Mangochi, the number of women registered to vote far outweighs that of men as they comprise nearly 62 out of every 100 registered voters. Malawi 2018 Census figures that show that 51 percent of Malawians are women. The figures make women an important constituent of the electoral and governance process, although women remain at the peripheral even globally in terms of partaking of what is on the table; women are also remain grossly underrepresented in positions of influence including in the political sphere, prompting gender equality proponents to agitate for women’s inclusion.