Why women have slim chance in 2024 local government elections

By Victoria Lihiru

In 2024, Tanzania will hold its seventh round of local government elections since reintroducing multiparty democracy in 1992. Slated for November, these elections will determine leadership at various levels, including village and hamlet chairpersons, village councils, street chairpersons, and street committees.

Approximately 12,319 village councils, 64,384 hamlets, and 4,263 streets will be involved. Local governance structures are crucial for citizen engagement in planning, budgeting, and social service delivery. However, despite women constituting 51 percent of the population, their representation in local governance remains alarmingly low. Post-2019 local elections, women occupy just 2.1 percent of elected village chairperson positions, 6.7 percent of elected hamlet chairpersons, and 12.6 percent of elected street chairpersons.

The quota system mandates that women make up at least one-third of village council members and street committee members. At the village level, councils consist of 25 members, including one chairperson, five hamlet chairpersons, eleven members from mixed groups, and eight women. Despite the requirement for women to constitute one-third of village councils, their presence in leadership roles remains minimal.

Men hold 97.9 percent of elected village chairperson positions, leaving women with a mere 2.1 percent. Similarly, hamlets, led by a single chairperson elected by the general assembly, have no gender quotas. Consequently, women hold only 6.7 percent of the elected hamlet chairpersons. At the street level, the street committee includes six members, with two required to be women. Although women make up one-third of these committees, men predominantly occupy elected chairperson roles, with women holding just 12.6 percent of these positions post-2019 elections.

While the quota system has been instrumental in increasing the number of women in village councils and street committees, several issues remain. Most women occupy positions as members of village councils and street committees, fulfilling the one-third legal quota requirement, but they rarely hold elected chairperson roles. This disparity arises because the women’s quota applies only to council and committee membership, not to chairperson elections.

The absence of gender quotas at the hamlet level means that women’s representation remains low. The competitive nature of the First Past the Post (FPTP) system, gender-insensitive electoral and party laws, societal perceptions that confine women to domestic roles, violence against women in elections and political parties’ reluctance to nominate women for leadership positions results in a stark gender imbalance.

Political parties often direct women to quota seats rather than competitive seats, under the assumption that if women have quota seats, the competitive ones are for men. This assumption undermines the quota system’s goal of complementing rather than replacing women’s representation in competitive seats. Consequently, women often gravitate toward quota seats, which are perceived as more accessible than the highly competitive seats. Overall, women’s role in local elections has predominantly been limited to voting and supporting others.

Financial barriers also play a significant role, with the high cost of campaigning and lack of party support disproportionately affecting women. This is further compounded by corruption given the use of “wajumbe” during party primaries. Additionally, unlike other elected positions, local government officials do not receive salaries, leading to inefficiencies and petty corruption, which further demoralizes potential candidates, including women.

The restriction of local government seats to political party nominations, with no provision for independent candidates, further limits women’s opportunities. The integrity of local elections is also questioned, with elections still managed by the President’s Office-Regional Administration and Local Government instead of an Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Although the Independent Electoral Commission Act, 2024 provides a new mandate for INEC to supervise local elections, this provision will not apply to the 2024 elections as it awaits the enactment of new legislation.

Without significant electoral legal reforms, women’s representation in local government is unlikely to improve. The current representation rates—2.1 percent for elected village chairpersons, 6.7 percent for elected hamlet chairpersons, and 12.6 percent for elected street chairpersons—may, if at all, increase only slightly. The 2024 local elections could marginalize women further due to anticipated intense competition. Opposition parties are poised to reclaim lost positions, while the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), seeks to preserve its dominance after securing 99 percent of local seats in the 2019 elections amid widespread disqualifications of opposition candidates and subsequent a boycott by opposition parties.

There is an urgent need to study and document acts of violence against women in local government elections and push for the production of gender-disaggregated data for aspirants and candidates. Local election reports should be made widely available, with comprehensive documentation covering key components of the electoral process and highlighting how different community groups participate.

Dr Victoria Melkisedeck Lihiru is an inclusive and democratic governance consultant and a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the Open University of Tanzania. The views expressed are her own. [email protected]