Women claim their space in Tanzania’s elections
It is election week in the United Republic of Tanzania, and more than 12,000 candidates from Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar—including 1,039 women—are running on 25 October for the Parliament and the Zanzibar House of Representatives, local District Council and the Presidency.
Tanzanian law provides for “special seats,” with 30 per cent reserved for women appointed by political parties, based on proportional representation. However, now more than 1,000 women are claiming their space, contesting in their own right through their constituencies.
UN Women Tanzania, in partnership with the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), the Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA), the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) and the Tanzania Women Cross-Party Platform (TWCP), trained 1,234 women, youth and persons living with disabilities, who were aspirants for the upcoming elections. Participants increased their public speaking, leadership and campaigning skills, and were empowered to go through the political party nomination process. Once nominated, 658 candidates received training across all regions of Tanzania, to tweak their public speaking and campaign skills, and explore gender equality issues and barriers to women’s participation. The trainings are part of UN Women Tanzania’s programme on women’s leadership and political participation called Wanawake Wanaweza (Women Can), supported by the Embassy of Finland and USAID.
The project is implemented in coordination with the multi-donor election cycle support project, the Democratic Empowerment Project (DEP), where UN Women works in partnership with UNDP and UNESCO. The project works with a wide range of government, media, faith-based and community leaders, as well as grass-roots and civil society organizations, political party leadership and parliamentary women’s caucuses.
The project promotes women’s rights and gender equality in political participation through work on the Constitution as well as electoral and political participation laws and policies. It seeks to enhance participation in political party structures and electoral processes by identifying and training aspirants and candidates, while at the same time addressing and monitoring issues of discrimination and violence against women, youth and persons living with disabilities. The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties also works with parties on codes of conduct and gender-sensitive nomination procedures. All project partners have been involved in the campaign for peaceful, fair and violence-free elections. Radio and TV spots to promote women’s political participation have been produced along with posters and stickers.
However many of the more than 1,000 women standing for election (roughly 8.5 per cent of all candidates) are successful, their numbers will only add to the women who will enter leadership roles through the special seats, which parties will fill after the elections.
Women ready to lead
Some of the women candidates discuss their motivation to run for public office, the challenges they face in campaigning, and how the UN Women trainings have empowered them.
Read the stories with images here