Aspiring women candidates in Malawi seek cut in nomination fees

By Jamal Jamal

LILONGWE, Malawi (AA) – Aspiring women candidates and civil groups in Malawi are urging election officials to cut nomination fees to enable more women to run for parliament in next year’s polls.

Maggie Kathewera Banda, chair of the Gender Coordination Network, a non-profit, said on Tuesday that cutting the fees in half would increase Malawi’s chances of meeting equal representation at various levels of society, including the male-dominated National Assembly.

“Malawi women are eager to participate in politics, but face financial challenges. We therefore plead with Malawi Electoral Commission and the government of Malawi to consider reducing the nomination so that at least we can have more women participating in the next elections,” said Banda in a statement.

Susan Itimu, an aspiring parliamentary candidate, told Anadolu that huge nomination fees have been a hurdle for most women aspiring to join politics in the Southeast African nation.

“Let’s make these elections to be different. Let’s not let money kill our dreams. We have all what it takes to contribute positively alongside our male counterparts, but we are let down by the huge nomination fees that we have to pay for us to contest in the elections. Let MEC consider our pleas,” she said.

Election commission spokesperson Sangwani Mwafulirwa said nomination fees would be announced this November, as “required by law.”

“We have heard all these pleas, it’s my hope that various stakeholders in the elections would consider them so that we increase participation of all aspiring candidates, bet it women or men,” Mwafulirwa told Anadolu.

Out of 193 legislators in the National Assembly, only 44 are women. And since 2004, there have been several efforts to increase women participation in the elections, but numbers of women making it to parliament have remained decimal.

The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace has urged women to “massively” participate, and is working on a project with financial support from United Nations Development Program.