Tanzania: MPs want new laws to address women equality in elections

Dar es Salaam. Calls for political parties to allocate elective positions for women were among the key issues that dominated debate in Parliament yesterday.

Another issue that was debated was the demand for changes in the National Electoral Commission (NEC) secretariat to create the position of deputy director of Elections for Zanzibar.

Yesterday was the second day in a row that legislators were debating the three crucial Bills to Tanzania’s democratic dispensation, namely the National Electoral Commission Bill, the President, Parliamentarians and Councillors Election Bill, as well as the Political Parties Affairs Laws (Amendment) Bill.

Nyasa Constituency lawmaker Stella Manyanya, CCM, said the law should explicitly declare and direct political parties to allocate at least 30 percent of the candidatures to women.

“Without doing this, women will keep complaining. Today, we mark 29 years of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Women's Empowerment that brought women’s voices about gender equality to the global stage, but nothing much has been done,” she said. The parliamentary session was broadcast live on National Television directly from Dodoma.

Special Seats Member of Parliament Khadija Taya, 30, said there was a need for electoral laws to significantly emphasise gender equality, noting that there were some men who also fell victim to abusive incidents.

She said electoral laws should come up with procedures for the endorsement of special-seat candidates among political parties.

“Some political parties have discriminatory procedures that don’t provide room for women to excel. The NEC should supervise the process because of the directives and constitutional demands,” she said.

Another Special Seats MP, Neema Lugangira, said there was no provision of the law that protects women against sexual harassment in elections. “We cannot strengthen democracy if we do not have strong participation from women during the elections.”

She suggested that violence during elections should be considered an election offence, suggesting that the law should clearly protect women and create a conducive environment for their participation in elections.

“It is important that issues preventing social media misrepresentation are included in the law. For example, there was a video circulating on social media depicting the President of Zambia saying he wasn’t standing for elections, while it was false,” she noted, citing an example from the neighbouring country of Zambia.

According to her, the gender desk should be established in all political parties and get connected with the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPPs) for efficient provision of feedback to political parties.

Mtoni Constituency MP Abdulhafar Idrissa Juma touted establishing the position of deputy director of Elections within the NEC for Zanzibar.

“The current structure is based on the union. So, there is a need for creating the deputy director of Elections’ position. This person should handle election issues for the union in the Islands,” he said.

Mahonda Constituency legislator Abdullah Ali Mwinyi said the playing field wasn’t level between men and women in the country’s politics, noting that efforts should be made to attain equality.

For her part, Same East MP, Ms Anne Kilango Malecela, said that harassment of women during elections has become a normal practice in the country.

“I am a victim of these incidents. When I ran for the first time in the parliamentary elections in 2005, I faced gender discrimination. I have gone through these issues, considered minor by some of us here. But they are so serious that they should be given more attention,” she said.