This document summarizes a report on women's participation in the 2014 Malawian elections and the 50-50 campaign aimed at increasing women's political representation. It finds that while the number of registered women voters was higher than men, few women were elected to parliament or local councils. The 50-50 campaign engaged in various activities to promote women candidates but faced challenges including limited resources and a hostile political environment. Going forward, it recommends continued efforts to reform electoral laws and party policies, improve gender administration of elections, and increase support for women's political participation.

1. WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN THE
2014 TRIPARTITE ELECTIONS
AND THE 50-50 CAMPAIGN
Emma Kaliya NGOGCN Chairperson and
Ngeyi Ruth Kanyongolo, PhD, UN
Women /NGOGCN Consultant
MESN 2014 Elections Review Conference
Lilongwe, 25/06/14

2. Introduction
 Women and political participation
 Gender and electoral processes
 Demarcation
 Voter registration
 Intra party nominations and primaries
 Electoral campaign
 Polling and results
 Post election
 Institutional and legal framework
 The 50:50 Campaign: aimed at increasing the
representation of women in parliament and in councils
(MPs and Councilors). This is in line with provisions of
the Malawi Constitution, SADC Protocol on Gender
and Development which sets the target of 50% and
other intern. instruments

3. Women and political participation
 Women
 Participation as
 Voters
 Officials
 Candidates
Important aspects of participation
Access
Influence
Benefit

4. Gender and electoral process: Voter
registration trends
 Fluctuating but increasing number of overall potential
voters registering
 Number of women registered voters higher than men
 A higher number of women actually voting compared
to men
 But: to what extent does this translate to the benefit
of women?

5. Intra-party nominations
 Lack of democracy within parties
 Low number of women in leadership party structures and
general political representation
 No / Unclear / unenforced rules on nominations for
political contest although varying with political party
 Centralised and personalised nomination processes
common
 Primary elections not favoring women
 Majority of women lose primary elections
 Decisions made at high levels where women are represented in
low numbers
 Rigging, intimidation and violence common
 Financial burden

6. Gender and electoral process:
Campaign
 Unfair playing field
 Violence and abuse
 Challenge – enforcement of regulations / Codes of
conduct
 Cost of campaign
 Financial cost
 justifiable costs
 Unjustifiable costs - handouts
 Social cost
 Skills development
 Women in political parties vs women as
independent candidates

7. Gender and electoral process:
Polling and results
 Voter turn out
 Fluctuating 70% in 2014; 2004 59% ; 93% in
1999 and 80% in 1994
 voter patterns based on individual and less on
party lines shown by decreasing number of
safe seats ??
 Monitoring
 Generally not gender based
 Lack of individual capacity by women
candidates to monitor electoral processes
 Tabulation and announcement
 One major tally centre
 Parallel centers
Confusion / chaos
 Impact on women as voters and as candidates

8. Overview of the 2014 Results
MPs
 As officially released by MEC, For MPs, only 32 women have made it out
of 261 women who contested representing 12%
 In 2004 of 1268 registered candidates, 154 were women(12%) and 14%
of these succeeded
 Furthermore, in terms of the 193 Parliamentary seats, representation of
women is now at 16.5%. This means that there is a drop by 5.5% from
the previous 22% in 2009; but higher than the 14.5% in 2004 ; 8% in
1999 and 4% in 1994,
Councilors
 For Councilors only 52 women have made it, out of 419 women who
contested representing 12% also
 In terms of number of wards, this means representation of women is at
11%. This denotes that a move of 2% has been achieved from the 9% in
2000
Overall
 Success rate between male and female candidates relatively comparable
though 13.5 % for men and 11% for women

9. 2009 Results 2014 Results
Political Party Successful female
candidates by party
% Political Party Successful female
candidates by
party
%
DPP 31 DPP 8
Independents 7 Independents 11
MCP 3 MCP 6
UDF 1 UDF 2
PP 5
Total 42 + 1 by-election=
43
22% Total
DROP of
5.5%
32 16.5
%
Comparison between 2009 and 2014 female
representation in Parliament by affiliation:

10. Gender and electoral process: Post
election
 Common disputes
 Voter certificate snatching
 Allegations of election rigging
 Violence and intimidation
 Dispute resolution
 Limited intervention in violence and abuse cases involving women
 Role of judiciary has improved with time
 Limited ADR and informal mechanisms which are more affordable
such as the Multi party Liaison Committee
 Election post mortem
 Very limited
 Male dominated
 Inadequate involvement of women candidates

11. Legal and institutional framework
 Institutional framework
 Laws
 Constitution
 Section 13
 Section 24
 Other legislation
 Local Government Elections Act 1996
 Political Parties (Registration and Regulation) Act 1993
 Presidential and Parliamentary elections Act
 Gender Equality Act
 Policies
 National Gender Policy (NGP) 2008
 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
 SADC Gender and Development Declaration 1997
 African Union Protocol on Gender and Development 2006
 Political party constitutions and manifestos
 2004,/ 2009 None with quotas or affirmative action to increase women
representation
 No rules and regulation on fundraising and registration of membership
 2014 – Improved – increasing recognition of gender equality and role of
women in parties

12. Summary of activities under the 50 -50
These include:
 Gendering MEC electoral documents eg Civic and Voter
Education Manual and the Media Code of conduct
 Media orientation and establishment of a media taskforce to
help in positive coverage of women candidates
 Media-Production and airing of radio messages, (till end of
campaign period),
 Profiling of women candidates-radio and print media
 Community awareness and mobilisation meetings (District
and grassroots level)
 Lobbying meetings with community leaders (District and
grassroots level -- targeting Traditional leaders, Faith
leaders, district political party structures, communities)
 Training of women candidates-regional meetings

13. Summary of activities done …
 Production and distribution of T-Shirts to
candidates (100 T-Shirts for every MP Candidate)
Provision of cash support to women candidates
(MK 200,000 for every MP candidate and MK 90,
430.62 for every councilor candidate)
 Monitoring of primaries,
 Monitoring of campaign,
 Monitoring of elections i.e. polling day, Observation
Mission ( Mini-situation room)
 Continuous engagement with various stakeholders

14. Key Lessons learnt
 Coordination was critical and helpful in building
synergies and collaboration among implementers.
Duplication was minimized and activities were jointly
done with improved sharing of information and
pooling together of resources
 Capacity building of women candidates was critical
and helped in the quality participation of women
candidates
 There were few null and void votes and this assures
that people knew how to vote – Improved CVE ?
 Elections to be treated as a process not an event

15. Key Challenges
 Limited resources – This led to other activities being
left out e.g. support towards monitors for female
candidates. Also, the campaign / support was limited
e.g. only 100 T-Shirts for each woman candidate MP
when in 2009 they received 500 each
 Mainstreaming of gender in electoral process, Civil
society and donor funding
 Hostile political environment-stereotypes /prejudice
still present among communities/electorate- Male /
women candidates intimidating and insulting women
candidates
 Electoral system: a challenge to achieve equal
political participation

16. Key Challenges
 Expectations of women candidates-some are
unrealistic- Some felt that the campaign had to do
everything for them such as pay or their nomination
fees, pay for their fuel, be given money they could
use during the campaign
 Limited time to undertake activities – In general
activities started late. To some extent delayed
provision of funds contributed to this.
 Increased number of women candidates (MPs plus
Councilors) - first tripartite elections

17. Key recommendations
 50:50 Campaign activities should be continuous.
This would allow for the internalization of the
campaign concept and goal among Malawians and
thereby foster change of attitude; encourage the
women to still take part though many have lost, etc .
This would also ensure easy retention of the
incumbent elected women, as they would be
targeted with various interventions
 Engagement with political parties should be stepped
up to influence considerable women’s participation
at party level e.g. Party Manifesto/ Constitutional
change that would clearly define women’s
participation

18. Priority post mortem areas of focus
 What worked / What failed – Programme evaluation
 Feedback from female candidates and other stakeholders
 The stereotypical / prejudicial “Amayi” syndrome /
Factor?
 Conceptual critique of the programme and beyond :
women and equal political participation
 Investigate voter patterns and attitudes towards
gender / women candidates
 Stakeholder analysis – actors’ interests, incentives
and power relations
 Review of the regulatory framework

19. Conclusion
 Continued concerted efforts to increase women’s
participation in the electoral process needed
through:
 Electoral gendered law reform for both intra political party
to national electoral processes
 Improved gendered administration and management of
electoral processes
 Improved gendered access to information
 NGO and civil society support
 Increased financial and technical support

20. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
END!!!!!