Zimbabwe: Parliament Falls Well Short of SADC Gender Targets

April 3, 2008 – (AllAfrica) When the Zimbabwe parliament was dissolved to make way for elections in March, the women made up 15.8 percent out of the 120-seat House of Assembly.

The results of the 29 March harmonized elections for the lower house in parliament, the House of Assembly, show a total of 28 women elected, although this awaits official confirmation.

This represents just 13 percent of the total 210 seats, with 17 women elected by ZANU PF and 11 women elected by the opposition MDC Tsvangirai.

In all, for the House of Assembly, there were 99 women candidates out of a field of 779 candidates, comprising 12.7 percent.

A higher percentage of women are contesting the Senate, whose results are still to be announced, and there is a woman contesting in most of the 60 constituencies.

During campaigning for the 29 March harmonized elections, Zanu-PF fielded 43 women out of a total of 217 candidates for the House of Assembly, almost 20 percent. The MDC Tsvangirayi party ran with 19 female candidates out of a total of 205 candidates, just over nine percent.

The smaller MDC faction headed by Arthur Mutambara fielded 16 women out of a total of 147 candidates, that is 10.8 percent.

In 2005, 58 women candidates contested, representing 21 percent of the total 270 candidates who sought a place in the 120-seat House of Assembly. The number of seats in parliament has increased by 90 to 210.

Both of the leading parties campaigned strongly for the election of women candidates based on their achievements, and among those re-elected were three high-profile women: Vice President Joice Mujuru, the Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises, Sithembiso Nyoni, and the Vice-President of MDC Tsvangirai, Thokozani Khupe.

Mujuru is one of the most senior women in the region's politics. She played an active and senior role in the war of liberation against colonial rule, and she has been a cabinet minister since independence in 1980, holding a range of portfolios.

Zimbabwe still falls short of the target of the 1997 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Declaration on Gender and Development which proposed that by 2005 at least 30 percent of positions in political and decision-making structures in the public and private sector should be held by women.

At the 2005 SADC Summit in Gaborone, Heads of State and Government endorsed the African Union position which provides for 50 percent target of women in all political and decision-making positions by 2015.

The endorsement finds echo in the draft SADC Protocol on Gender and Development which commits member countries to 50 percent of women in all political and decision-making positions.

The draft protocol is expected to be presented to the next Summit in August 2008 in South Africa for adoption, following consultation at ministerial level and wide consultations with other stakeholders.

In the SADC region, only Botswana (11.1 percent) and DRC (12 percent) have fewer women members of parliament than Zimbabwe, in percentage terms.

So far only Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania among SADC countries have managed to elect over 30 percent women in parliament, through a system of proportional representation. In Tanzania, a constitutional amendment guarantees that 30 percent seats for women are added through party lists, based on the percentage votes won by each party.

In South Africa, 43 percent of cabinet members are women. Overall, there were 779 candidates for the 210 seats in the lower house of assembly in the Zimbabwe elections, and 197 aspirants for the 60 elected seats in the upper house, the Senate, from 12 political parties and 116 independents.

For the voting day ZEC had deployed 107,690 polling officers who oversaw voting in 9,000 polling stations throughout the country - most of the polling officials and presiding officers were women.

Zimbabwe's electorate is estimated at around 5.9 million registered voters out of a population of around 12 million. The following is the breakdown of registered voters in the country's 10 provinces: Bulawayo (320,772), Harare (784,598), Manicaland (774,482), Mashonaland Central (522,107), Mashonaland East (658,123), Mashonaland West (625,729), Masvingo (740,969), Matabeleland North (366,271), Matabeleland South (355,480) and Midlands (786,237).

From:http://allafrica.com/stories/200804030227.html