‘Compel parties to give 30% posts to women’

SEVEN political parties in Kasama have appealed for the enactment of a law to compel political parties to reserve 30 percent of all contestable positions for women.

The parties also called for a “stop to gender discrimination” and committed themselves to upholding the plight of women in different spheres of life, including politics.

This was at a conference in Kasama yesterday which was attended by the ruling Patriotic Front (PF), United Party for National Development (UPND), Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), National Democratic Congress (NDC), National Restoration Party (NAREP), Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) and the Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD).

The political parties claimed that most women were marginalized even if they were qualified for certain positions in life, politics included.

”Zambia being a member of the globalized world had signed a number of treaties, protocols and conventions regarding women’s rights and gender equality, for example, it had been agreed under the united nation that 30 percent threshold should be reserved for women in terms of adoption,” they said.

The parties said that currently in Zambia, out of 1626 councilors only 126 were women, six council chairpersons and two executive mayors.

They said there was also disparity even in parliament where from 164 total number of members, only 29 were women.

“We as political parties acknowledge that women were highly disadvantaged in adoptions because of the tradition and culture of gender discrimination, lack of education, political intimidation and violence, corruption and inferiority complex and low self-esteem and luck of grooming in political leadership and lack of experience,” they said.

They said that they were committing to the adoption of both women and men fairly as political party candidates in some elections.