Saturday 18 January 2014

Tripartite Elections in Malawi: A Special Focus on Women and Youth in 2014

On May 20 this year, eligible Malawians and resident foreign nationals will be busy casting their votes in the first ever tripartite elections. This is a chance that comes after every five years when democratically empowered citizenry and foreign residents exercise their right to choose leaders of their choice to take up the mantle.

Good news from the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) is that the electoral governing body has registered 7, 537,584 voters. This number is against a projected number of 8,009,734 people. This means that 94.10 of eligible constituents have registered to vote.

Another good thing is that nomination fees for female candidates in parliamentary and local government categories are considerably lower and this will definitely enhance the participation of females who are somehow economically less empowered due to some other reasons as compared to men. Below is a list of how the nomination fees are;
·         Candidates for Presidential Elections:
K1,000,000.00

·         Candidates for Parliamentary Elections:
K200,000.00 for male candidates
K150,000.00 for female candidates

·         Candidates for Local Government Elections:
K20,000.00 for male candidates
K15,000.00 for female candidates

The youth and women have been underrepresented in various political and influential positions in Malawi and in fact, the trend is quite common in most sub-Saharan African countries. Thus, the underrepresentation has had a number of devastating effects on the youth and women. By extension, this has also led to low productivity in the countries because larger sections of capable people in the population are left out in the development efforts.


I, therefore, would like to encourage all eligible women and young people who would want to vie for a position in the forth coming tripartite elections in Malawi to do so without further ado. As I will be publishing this blog, we will have exactly 120 days before the polls and submission of nomination papers will be from 10th to 14th February, 2014.

3 comments:

laurynie kamwendo said...

this is a great opportunity for us women/girls to join the race and show that we can make,its time we stop dancing and ululating at male politicians during their rallies.many thanks to the Malawi electoral commission for reducing the fees for women/girls.

johnes said...

laurynie kamwendo i agree with you,sometimes women ululate even when the person is saying bad things about them.this is your chance women stop underrating yourselves.

Anonymous said...

Very many thanks to MEC indeed! An opportunity has presented itself. All willing and eligible young ladies as well as women should vie for the positions and take up the mantle as leaders