Violence against women in politics worries UN agency

 United Nations Women (UN Women) has called on local political parties to create a safe space for women participating in politics and swiftly move to address violence against women during elections.

Speaking during the opening of a three-day multi-stakeholder conference in Salima on Wednesday themed ‘Violence against women in elections’, UN Women acting country representative Kebedech Ambaye observed that women experience various forms of violence during elections, including physical, psychological, verbal and digital abuse.

She said: “Statistics show that since 2014, the number of independents has been rising. It was at 37 percent in 2014 and reached 39 percent in 2019.

“This trend demonstrates that the political party environment, especially surrounding primary elections, is not conducive to women’s political participation.”

Kebedech, who is from the UN Women East and Southern Africa Regional Office (Esaro), made the remarks in the wake of findings of a UN Women 2019 Tripartite Elections Report titled ‘Strengthening women’s political empowerment’ which shows that over 50 women suffered violence during primary elections in Malawi.

The report further indicates that about 90 percent of incidents had police intervention.

But the report noted that despite the various challenges, Malawi has registered increased representation of women in Parliament at 23 percent and in local councils at 14 percent.

Ambaye said the country now faces the challenge to sustain the gains.

Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare deputy director of administration Esther Ng’ong’ola said although some progress has been made in increasing the participation of women in politics and decision-making, more work still needs to be done to ensure that structural barriers limiting women’s access to social economic opportunities are remove