Political parties accused of gender insensivity

According to a research by Oxfam Tanzania in collaboration with local civil society organizations (CSOs), a number of women showed interest of participating in the electoral process, but they failed to realise their dreams because they weren’t supported by their parties.

Presenting research findings on women participation in the 2015 General Elections in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Prof Ruth Meena said the findings also observed that costs of campaigning as another challenge.

Prof Meena said that political parties are not willing to give room for more women to partake in the electoral process.

She said the research found that women in the country have been active in supporting activities of political parties, but they are not given the chance to join in decision-making bodies.

The professor noted that most political parties have no gender policy, and where there are, they are not practical.

She said that in last year’s General Elections there were 1,250 candidates vying for parliamentary seats, but only 238 were women, which is equivalent to 19 per cent.

“This ratio is very low, but the situation is far worse with regards to candidates who vied for councillorship since out of the 10,879 candidates, only 679, equal to 6.2 per cent were women,” she lamented.

She said that the figures show how participation is low despite the willingness of women to vie for different posts.

Prof Meena also noted that there had not been significant changes in the number of women candidates in last year’s elections compared to the 2010 elections.

“This means that despite efforts by human rights groups and domestics and international commitments which Tanzania is party to, there has been no significant change,” she stressed.

She said parties should involve women in the decision-making to consider gender equality in elections.

According to Oxfam official, Rashida Sharifu, the research was conducted in nine regions of Shinyanga, Dodoma Tanga, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Lindi, Mwanza and Unguja South in Zanzibar.