FEATURE: Slow march to equality

From the time Lucy Ndatira Mkandawire, a United Democratic Front (UDF) parliamentary candidate for Karonga Nyungwe Constituency, expressed interest in contesting and later stepped on the campaign trail, she has been carrying more than her dreams and party’s colors. She has been carrying the weight of history, in as far as women’s representation in politics is concerned.

Facing three male opponents in the name of Leonard Mwalwanda of Malawi Congress Party (MCP), Kenneth Ndovie of UTM Party, and Wilson Woodrow Sichali of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), she admitted the race has been anything but challenging.

“I have been doing everything on my own. While the ground has been promising, the biggest challenge I have been facing is financial support. Our male counterparts have money, but we, women, do not. I anticipated getting support from the 50-50 campaign; unfortunately, Karonga district was not selected,” Mkandawire said.

She added, “And of course, there are cultural beliefs. Our cultural beliefs do not favor women to lead, and there are still people who feel a woman cannot rule them. So, that is another challenge I have been facing.”

Across, to Karonga Town Constituency, Catherine Kettie Mwafulirwa of Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) has been navigating a similar terrain. Contesting against four men, she described her experience as ‘tough.’

“People expect handouts. They want food or money before they listen. But I have tried to focus on civic education then. What gives me hope is that many women have welcomed me warmly, saying a woman understands their struggles better than men. But on the other side, some men still refuse to accept women as leaders,” Mwafulirwa said.

Fighting against the odds

Stories like that of Mkandawire and Mwafulirwa reveal the uphill battle faced by women in Malawi’s politics. The number of women contesting in elections remains low due to various reasons, including financial constraints and cultural norms that favor men to lead.

Statistics from the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) paint a sobering picture. Out of 1466 approved candidates for this year’s parliamentary elections, only 328 are women compared to 1,138 men.

This is only a slight increase from 2019, when 309 women contested out of 1,338 total candidates. However, constituencies have increased from 194 in 2019 to 229 this year. And yet, the share of women had barely shifted.

Women are contesting in 188 constituencies, leaving 41 constituencies with no female candidate. In most areas, where female names appear, a single woman is pitted against multiple men. Only 16 constituencies have something close to gender balance, and less than 10 feature more women than men.

The constituencies where women outnumber men include: Phalombe Machemba with 4 women out of 6 candidates, Lilongwe City Kamphuno, 7 out of 9 candidates, Mangochi Central with 3 out of 5, Lilongwe City Mtandire-Mtsiriza, 3 out of 5, Lilongwe City Nankhaka, 4 out of 7, Mchinji Central, 3 out of 5, Mchinji West, 4 out of 5, Dowa South, 2 females out of 3.

“If you look at the total figure of female candidates, it is an issue, and of course, it will affect the number of women who will be elected to parliament. That is why, for us, we have been working with political parties, engaging them to see the importance of identifying women who can be fielded as candidates,” Women Legal Resources Centre (WOLREC) Executive Director, Maggie Kathewera Banda said.

“Unfortunately, we still have situations where no women are contesting in some areas. It is very unfortunate because on our part, we really tried as a project to ensure that most women at least are represented in almost all the constituencies but I think its work in progress, something we still need to be looking at as a nation and then see how best we can support the women,” she said.

Progress too slow

Statistics show that even when more women put their names forward, few make it through.

For example, in the last parliament, only 22.9 percent of MPs were women, a figure way below the 50-50 vision. This means that while the number of female aspirants as well as those who get elected to parliament has been rising over the years, the progress remains slow.

“The progress has been very slow because the change has not been very high. For example, in 1994 it was 5.6 percent, in 1999 it went to 8.8 percent, coming by 2014, we were about 15 percent. So it has been progress but slow,” Kathewera Banda said.

“But we seem to be making headway in terms of people understanding the message, both in terms of the voters as well as political parties, because we have seen that political parties are also trying to be as gender sensitive as possible. So, we really feel that the message that we have been giving is getting across,” she said.

Parties and policies

Political parties insist they are trying to promote women’s representation in politics and decision-making positions.

DPP spokesperson Shadrick Namalomba said his party has policies aimed at ensuring that more women in the party hold decision-making positions and represent the party in elections.

“Malawians will recall that our President Arthur Peter Mutharika is a He for She Ambassador, and because of that, even when he was in government, he ensured that his cabinet and even senior positions had more women. Coming to the party, we have made a deliberate policy that in the party structures, we have equal representation from the area level, constituency, regional, as well as national level,” Namalomba said.

“Coming to this particular election, we made a deliberate policy in terms of when we went to the primaries, we made sure that nomination fees that women and youth were paying were half of what the men were paying, that was to ensure that more women and youth are actually participating,” he added.

Namalomba, however, said it is sad that despite all such efforts, not many women are participating in politics.

“I guess it is because of the nature of the political environment that we are in. Politics has been monetized, people now look at money, and if you do not have enough money, it is going to be difficult,” Namalomba said.

He added, “But we might be coming back in government, surely we are going to reform the elections process to ensure that more women, deliberately are given positions and are allowed to contest, allowed to represent their people, and even represent women who make the majority of voters in Malawi.”

Annie Maluwa, AFORD Publicity Secretary, while pointing out that her party has increased the number of women in leadership, said they are still pushing because they are not satisfied with the number of women representing the party in this year’s general elections.

“Since 2022, we have made sure that we have a lot of women in the party in decision-making positions. For instance, the Secretary General is a woman, so is the Treasurer General, and even I the Publicity Secretary. So this was the beginning of making sure that even in this year’s elections, we are having more women at parliamentary and local government elections,” Maluwa said.

“However, as a party today, we are not satisfied with the turnout that we have in the parliamentary and local government elections because so far, we can say that in the parliamentary elections, we have 26 percent of women and at least 5 percent of youth. But we are making sure that the next coming election in 2030, we field more than 50 percent,” she said.

Voices from the ground

Ordinary Malawians are weighing in on their views. Violet Mussa, a Mzuzu City resident, said women leaders are urgently needed.

“Women know our struggles. They must be in parliament to speak for us. But support for them to achieve this must be continuous, not just when elections come,” Mussa said.

For Bernard Manda, another Mzuzu City resident, the issue is deeper.

“We need to go to the drawing table and re-strategize. It is difficult to achieve this equal representation now because we are dealing with people who grew up with the mindset that women cannot lead. So I think the starting point is going to the grassroots, sensitize the young ones that both sexes are equal, and they will grow up with this mindset, making it easier in the future to achieve equal representation,” Manda said.

A political analyst speaks

Political analyst George Phiri argues that the issue of equal representation should be left to choice.

“The question of women’s representation in parliament is also the question of the willingness of women to participate in politics,” Phiri said. “If we look at what women are in Malawi, I think their main interest is not in politics although there has been some outcry that women do not participate in politics.”

“There are several reasons for that. One of the reasons is that they do not have interest in politics, secondly, they are threatened because politics is not peaceful in Malawi, thirdly, they do not have the financial muscle to do politics because politics in Malawi requires money,” Phiri said.

He added, “So I would say that apart from these reasons, women also have the right for themselves to participate. Now, if women do not come forward with the willingness to participate, I do not think they can be forced to participate because we need 50-50 in parliament.”

 A dream deferred

Fifteen years after the 50-50 campaign was launched, Malawi’s progress remains sluggish. One woman is running for president out of 17 candidates. Just over a fifth of parliamentary candidates are female. And 41 constituencies will vote with a woman’s name on the ballot.

So what must change?

Campaigners call for legal quotas or reserved seats to guarantee women’s representation.

“I think as a nation, we need to be looking at what kind of affirmative action we can put in place because obviously, if we go by what we have seen, it seems like it will take ages to have 50-50 representation. Because right now, what is happening is that we are depending on the goodwill of political parties and voters, so where they are not forced, if I would say so, they will either decide whether they go for women or not,” WOLREC’s Maggie Kathewera Banda said.

“There was an effort that was done in 2019, where a Bill was developed about having constituencies reserved for women, it was talking about a district as a constituency. What it meant was that for all the 28 districts, we would be assured that at least we have 28 women that we are starting with in parliament. Unfortunately, that was not supported by parliament, but we need to have such kind of a law,” she said.

However, George Phiri, the political analyst, has a different view.

“I don’t think we need to formulate a law, because it will be like we will be forcing the horse that does not want to drink water to drink, which cannot be positively responded to. We just need to give freedom to women to participate as the situation is at present, and if there is a need to finance women, we need to empower them and bring out the finances for women. I think that will be proper than putting up a law specifically that should grant women to participate when they are not interested or willing to do so,” Phiri said.

But beyond these policy fixes, the courage of today’s female candidates must not be overlooked. They are carrying the 50-50 dream alive, whether the majority will win or not.

“I am urging fellow women, they should not get discouraged because they do not have financial support or maybe because of cultural beliefs, we need to strive. As a female candidate, I believe there is no difference between a male and a female. In fact a female candidate can deliver more than a male candidate if given a chance,” Mkandawire, Karonga Nyungwe candidate said.

“Nowadays, there is gender issues, whereby women can do what men can do. So there is no need for women to be looking themselves down that they cannot compete, they have the right to compete, so I encourage every woman to come out and join the race on the ground, whether it is 2030 and more terms to come,” Mwafulirwa, the Karonga Town Constituency candidate added.

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