Chisomo Ngulube Writes

President Lazarous Chakwera's first 31-member cabinet has 12 women and Malawi's gender rights activists who had been pushing for the inclusion of more females in decision making positions have commended the decision. This is despite the numbers falling short of the 40 percent minimum for either gender as prescribed by law. But, they are not amused by the decision not to have a clearly stipulated Ministry of Gender and Disability and the fact that most of the women appointees (eight) are deputies.  

Campaigners for more female inclusion in positions of power have lamented the failure by some female political stalwarts to retain their Parliamentary seats. Preliminary results show that UTM General Secretary Patricia Kaliati who has served as Parliamentarian for Mulanje West since 1999 is among the unconfirmed casualties that also include former Minister of Gender and Democratic Progressive Party candidate for Dowa Central Jean Kalilani, former Malawi Congress Party spokesperson Jessie Kabwila, former first lady Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri, outspoken Dedza East former MCP MP Juliana Lunguzi and DPP secretary general Grezelder Jeffrey.

The campaign period is over. Malawians vote in Tripartite Elections on Tuesday, May 21 2019. Fifty six percent of the 6,859,570 registered voters are women. There is no woman contesting for the presidency as was the case in the previous 2014 elections. But in the battle for Parliamentary seats, of the 1,333 contestants 304 are women representing 23%. If previous trends are anything to go by women’s success rate will hover at around 20-30%. This despite the 50-50 Campaign mounted to increase women’s participation in politics. I [Chisomo Ngulube (CN)] engaged Viwemi Chavula (VC) of the 50-50 Campaign Management Agency on the 2019 campaign.