Africa-Press – Zambia. NGOCC DEMAND FOR A LAW THAT WILL COMPEL POLITICAL PARTIES TO ADOPT WOMEN THE Non-governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council (NGOCC) has demanded for a law that will compel political parties to adopt women so as to narrow the widening gender inequalities in the political spheres.
And the NGOCC says it is particularly disappointed with the UPND as a ruling party for not leading by example. All political parties participating in the upcoming Kabwata by-election have adopted men to represent them and this has not pleased the women’s movement.
In a statement, NGOCC executive director Engwase Mwale stated that the women’s movement was extremely concerned by the lack of commitment by political parties to enhance women’s participation in politics and ultimately decision-making positions.
“The Non-governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council would like to register our disappointment with the choice political parties have made NOT to adopt women to participate in the Kabwata by election slated for January 20th 2022,” stated Mwale
“As the women’s movement, we are extremely concerned by the lack of commitment by the political parties to enhance women’s participation in politics and ultimately decision-making positions.”
She stated that NGOCC has noted with sadness that all the participating political parties have adopted men to the exclusion of women. “We are particularly disappointed with the United Party for National Development (UPND), as the governing party for not leading by example,” she stated.
Mwale stated that the numbers of women elected at local Government and Parliamentary levels after the August 2021, elections remain unacceptably low. “It was therefore, our hope that the political parties would take advantage of these by-elections to redress the gender inequalities in these decision-making spaces,”Mwale stated.
She stated that it was high time that political parties and indeed the Zambian Government started actualizing Zambia’s commitment to gender equality at all levels as espoused in various regional and international treaties that the country has ratified.
Mwale atated that it was becoming abundantly clear that the exclusion of women from the governance process by political parties was deliberate and systemic, further entrenching patriarchy in our society.
“It is against this background that we DEMAND for a law that will compel political parties to adopt women so as to narrow the widening gender inequalities in the political sphere,” she stated.
She also called on the women inbtje country to rise up and demand for their rightful spaces. “Women cannot be reduced to mere spectators and cheer leaders in the governance of their own country.
The obtaining gender inequalities are totally unacceptable and a violation of women’s rights,”she noted. Mwale added that the exclusion of women from participating in the governance of the country negates democracy.
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