Harare (New Ziana) – The United Nations on Thursday commended government for extending the women’s quota to elected political office in parliament and local government.
Women enjoyed a representation quota in parliament guaranteeing them 60 seats, but this was due to expire this year.
The government has now renewed the quota, and also extended it to elected local government positions, a move seen as further empowering women.
UN Women country representative in Zimbabwe, Fatou Lo said the extension of the women’s quota would go a long way in strengthening their representation in parliament and local government.
“We are certainly seeing some good developments and we applaud the government of Zimbabwe and we continue to encourage the implementation of such progressive provisions,” she said.
The quota system was introduced in the Constitution of 2013 as a way of increasing women’s participation in politics, and representation in national political bodies.
It was supposed to end in 2023, but has since been extended through Constitutional Amendment number two in Parliament.
Under the provision, 60 women are elected to the National Assembly through proportional representation.
Through the amendment, 30 percent of seats in local government will now be reserved for women.
Lo said gender-based violence was pushing a lot of women to abstain from standing as candidates in national elections, and even to cast votes.
“Unfortunately gender based violence stands in the way of women running for political office (and) also participating in elections as voters and so on,” she said.
Yet in the 2018 elections, women made up 54 percent of registered voters.
Lo said UN Women and its sister agencies and other women’s rights organisations have been training women interested in standing as candidates in the upcoming general election in August.
“We have done a lot to support women participation in elections,” she said.
New Ziana
