Women's network advocates for gender balance in politics - Elections '99 - Sustainable Democracy

WINDHOEK, 29 November 1999
With only 15 women in the National assembly of 78 members, women's organisations in Namibia under the banner of the Women's Manifesto Network, have come together to advocate gender balance in politics and decision making.

The women's network is calling on political parties in the country to nominate women as candidates in all elections as well as give more priority to their interests in policy development and implementation. It has also urged women to vote for political parties that have promised to appoint more female members of parliament.

"Inorder to achieve gender balance in politics and decision making we advocate that, political parties include 50 percent women candidates on their party lists in all elections including those of the National Assembly. The government should also legislate affirmative action provision to ensure that at least half of the candidates are women in future elections at all levels of government", reads the network's manifesto.

Namibia uses the proportional representation at parliamentary level in which winning parties select members from a hierachical list. Under this system, there can be a deliberate infusion of women into parliament. The country however uses the British first-past-the-post or winner take all system for the presidential elections.

"As women, we should think carefully about the party we intend to vote for and its commitment to gender equality and social justice. We should not feel intimidated by our male partners because our vote is our secret", said Elizabeth Khaxas, the spokesperson for the women's network.

The network believes that the participation of women at all levels of decision making is crucial for the development of democracy.

"There can be no true and substantive democracy without the equal participation of women ... Political parties tend to blame women for not coming forward as candidates, rather than analyse and remove the many barriers and constraints facing women who enter the male dominated area of politics", says the women's manifesto.

In response to calls by the women, a number of political parties contesting the forthcoming elections have already promised to increase the number of women in parliament, if their presidential candidates win.

Presently, out of the 21 ministers in Cabinet, only two are women, with two others heading non-ministerial cabinet posts of National Planning Commission and Women's Affairs.

Namibia is a signatory to the Convention on the elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action and the SADC declaration on Gender and Development, which effectively means the government has committed itself to promoting women's issues at all levels.

The country's National Gender Policy and Plan of action spells out 10 areas of concern in which gender imbalances need to be addressed. These include areas of gender balance in politics and decision making, poverty and rural development, education and training, reproductive health and rights, gender and legal affairs as well as the situation of the girl child.

Namibians go to the polls on November 30 and December 1, to elect new members of parliament and a new president. The incumbent president, Sam Nujoma has been in power since independence nine years ago.

With a two-thirds majority in parliament, Nujoma's South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) sponsored legislation that changed the constitution to enable him to stand for a third term of office. Initially the constitution only allowed a president two terms of office. His party is however expected to win both the parliamentary and the presidential elections, with the newly formed Congress of Democrats (CoD) led by Ben Ulenga, highly tipped to upset SWAPO's chances of retaining its two-thirds majority. (SARDC)