BROKEN EQUALITY DREAM

• Women defy odds but still trail behind men in politics
• The 50-50 goal remains more slogan than reality
• Vision 2063 and SDG 5 still await action

By Kelvin Tembo

When the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) declared Pilirani Kaphagawani Buleya as a winner in the parliamentary elections for Lilongwe Nkhoma Constituency, the moment felt surreal. Tears of joy welled up in her eyes as she raised her hands to the sky in gratitude.

For Buleya, who entered the political arena in 2023 and was the only female candidate out of the six contesting for the parliamentary seat in the constituency, the road to parliament was not easy; it was paved with frustration and resilience.

“Since I started my journey in politics, it has not been easy. It was a very difficult journey, but I remained persistent. I never gave up. I trusted myself and reaching this far, I just say thank you, Lord,” Buleya said.

She added, “The most challenging thing was financial hiccups. We women are not financially stable. Almost everything in politics requires financial support, and it was really difficult for me to compete with my male counterparts.”

Initially sought to contest on the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) ticket, Buleya contested as an independent after she lost in party primary elections to Collins John Fletcher Kajawa, who was duly nominated to represent the party.

“I was pushed to an independent ticket after the party’s primary elections. I accepted the defeat, which was a result of the party system. I had no choice but to trust in God and the people,” she said.

Her experience echoes that of Catherine Mwafulirwa, who contested against four men under the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) ticket in Karonga Town Constituency but lost.

Just like Buleya, Mwafulirwa, who came last in the race, described her campaign as ‘tough,’ not because she lacked the will, but the culture of handouts that dominates Malawi’s politics and perceptions by some men, who still refuse to accept women as leaders.

“People expected food and money before they listened,” she said. “And again, while I felt welcomed, to some men, I was not because of the long-standing belief, especially in this patriarchal society, that women cannot lead.”

Despite losing, Mwafulirwa took the defeat with grace.

“I am still on the ground with the people. I am also doing a postmortem of my journey. I have realized that apart from the challenges I faced, other things contributed to my dismal performance. I went on the ground late, and it was my first time doing the campaign; as such there are some errors that I made, and I need to improve. There is always next time, I am not giving up, she said, vowing to go again in 2030.

Despite performing differently in the elections, Buleya and Mwafulirwa’s stories have one thing in common. They are a mirror of Malawi’s persistent struggle to achieve gender parity in politics.

Women in the country continue facing several barriers that go beyond competition. They include the financial cost of campaigning, the lack of party support, and the lingering cultural biases. These continue to hold women back.

How they performed

A female Vice President, a female presidential candidate who got 1.6 percent of the votes, and 49 women from 44 elected to the 229-member legislature, sum up the performance of women in the September 16 general elections. On paper, that is progress, but digging deeper, the picture is less encouraging.

The number of constituencies increased by 36, meaning that despite the five-seat gain, women’s overall share in parliament actually dropped. Only 15 of the 44 female Members of Parliament (MPs) from 2019 were re-elected, meaning 29 did not return. Of the 29 that did not return, 11 of them, whose names did not appear on the list of approved candidates, and 18 contested but lost.

Among notable losers are some former cabinet ministers in the Tonse-led government, including Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, Halima Daud, Abida Mia, Agnes Nkusa Nkhoma, and Chrissie Kalamula Kanyasho, United Democratic Front (UDF) running mate Bertha Ndebele; Gladys Ganda, and Fyness Magonjwa, the youngest female to be elected to parliament, just to mention but a few.

“It is a cause of worry because the ideal situation could have been to maintain the ones that were already in parliament and then add on new ones. That would have made the number go up. I think as CSOs and even the Government, we should be looking at how to retain the women that are already there and then adding on with new women,” Maggie Kathewera Banda, Women’s Legal Resources Centre (WOLREC) Executive Director, said.

Party-wise, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) remains the leader with 13 female MPs down from 18, followed by MCP with 12 up from 9, the UTM Party with 3 up from one, then UDF maintaining the number at two, while the Peoples Party (PP) and AFORD have each gained single seats. Independents fared slightly better, increasing from 14 to 17.

By districts, Chitipa, Rumphi, Chiradzulu, and Neno had no females in 2019 but now have one each, with Neno having two, while districts like Mzimba, Kasungu, Dowa, Lilongwe, Thyolo, and Nkhotakota have done better by increasing the number of female MPs.

Nkhatabay, Ntchisi, Mwanza, Ntcheu, Mangochi, and Mchinji have maintained the number, while Balaka, Machinga, Zomba, Blantyre, Mulanje, Chikhwawa, and Nsanje, the number of female MPs has gone down. And Karonga, Likoma, Salima, and Dedza have no female MPs.

We are celebrating, but we are not there yet

For Maggie Kathewera Banda, Women’s Legal Resources Centre (WOLREC) Executive Director, the results are bittersweet.

“We remain excited and happy about the news because history is repeating itself. We have a female vice president, which is commendable. It is unfortunate, of course, that people did not support the only female presidential candidate, but suffice to say, we still have something that we can celebrate about in the name of a female vice president,” Kathewera Banda said.

She added, “I should also say that we are also happy with the outcome of the parliamentary results, although we are not moving at a speed that we would have loved to move. But I think for me it is still worth celebrating because the politics that Malawi is operating is very patriarchal and not conducive for women.”

While celebrating, Kathewera Banda emphasized the need for affirmative action to make the environment conducive for women’s participation in politics.

“So, while we are celebrating, we still need to look at how we can improve this in the future. I think as a nation we should be talking about affirmative action because if you look at countries that have made it, you will find that they have proper mechanisms put in place to ensure that women are there,” Kathewera Banda said.

“It is high time we looked at the 2019 Bill that proposed gender quotas. Without a law, we will keep on depending on the goodwill of political parties and voters, and that is not enough,” she said.

Parties promise reforms

DPP spokesperson Shadrick Namalomba, whose party has maintained its record of having more female MPs, said his party remains committed to supporting women’s political participation.

“During primaries, we made sure that women paid half of what men were paying. But politics have been monetized, and if you do not have money, it is difficult. So, we intend to reform the process to deliberately ensure that more women are given positions and allowed to represent their people, and even represent women who make up the majority of voters in Malawi,” Namalomba said.

Meanwhile, AFORD spokesperson Annie Maluwa said the party has learned lessons from the last election and intends to do better in the future.

“In the next election, we want to feature more than 50 percent of women,” she said.

Voices from the ground

For some voters, change begins with awareness.

Masozi Kanyasko, a first-time voter from Mzimba, said she voted for a female parliamentary candidate because leadership is not about gender but capability.

“The time people have this mindset, it will be easy to achieve gender parity in politics. All that Malawi needs now is continuous awareness campaigns so that people realize that women too can lead,” she said.

Another voter, Sankhani Lwanja, agrees. He said while focusing on awareness, women must also do their part by continuing to push forward. Lwanja said women must come out and enter the race.

“One failure is not the end of it all. We have seen people who did not make it in 2019 winning now. Women should not give up; their time will come,” he said.

Moving forward

Political Scientist Sainala Kalebe from the Catholic University recommends the need to address the systems that push women away from politics and the culture that discourages them from joining in the first place.

“First of all, it is important to look at factors that push women away from politics. The factors that make women not want to be in politics. Essentially, here we are talking about the electoral systems. The system where you have a winner takes it all. In such a system, political parties would want to field the most competitive candidate, and that candidate many times may not be a woman,” Kalebe said.

“And then, we also need to worry about the things that make women not to want to be in politics. So, we are looking at addressing issues of political violence, campaign financing, and also the norms and harassment that women will get when they put themselves in the public out there,” she added.

“So, it is not a once-off answer that we can have to addressing this problem but it is a broad question that needs several stakeholders to address,” Kalebe said.

On her part, Kathewera Banda said there is a need to have programs that go beyond election time.

“So, before elections, we need to do a lot of capacity building. After elections, we need to do a lot of capacity building for those who have made it so that they know what to do, they know how to perform so that they perform to people’s expectations,” she said.

For Buleya, who defied the odds to win, she insists more must be done.

“We need deliberate policies and financial support for women. A lot of women fail not because they lack vision, but because they lack money,” she said.

Policy and International Commitments: How the Results Align with Malawi’s Goals

The experiences of women like Pilirani Buleya and Catherine Mwafulirwa—facing financial constraints, limited party backing, and patriarchal stereotypes—reflect broader systemic challenges that undermine Malawi’s development aspirations and international commitments.

Malawi Vision 2063 (Pillar One: Agricultural Productivity and Commercialization, Industrialization, and Urbanization) underscores inclusivity and gender equality as key enablers of sustainable development. It envisions “an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant industrialized nation” where both men and women have equal access to political, economic, and social opportunities. Achieving this vision requires deliberate efforts to dismantle barriers that prevent women from full participation in political leadership.

Similarly, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality) aims to “ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.” Malawi’s failure to reach the 50-50 political representation goal highlights the need for affirmative action policies, as encouraged by SDG 5, alongside SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions).

Malawi’s obligations under international and regional frameworks also demand stronger gender-inclusive reforms.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Maputo Protocol (Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa), and the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development all call for states to adopt measures that guarantee women’s equal political participation and protect them from discrimination and violence.

Therefore, to transform progress into parity, Malawi must translate these commitments into tangible policies—such as gender quotas, equitable campaign financing, leadership capacity-building for women, and enforcement of laws against political harassment.

Such steps would not only advance gender equality in politics but also move the nation closer to fulfilling Vision 2063 and its obligations under SDG 5 and related treaties.

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