The Forum for Democratic Process (FODEP) has called on the President-elect Hakainde Hichilema to consider nominating more women as Nominated Members of Parliament.
FODEP Executive Director George Chimembe says out of the 8 nominated Members of Parliament, 6 of them should be women.
Speaking during an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka, Mr Chimembe said nominating more women will contribute to an increased representation of women in decision matters, at national level.
Mr Chimembe said his organization is not happy with the current participation of women in the electoral matters.
Meanwhile the Non-governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council (NGOCC) has noted with sadness the continued discrimination of women from participating and benefiting from the various developmental processes.
NGOCC Board Chairperson Mary Mulenga stated that Zambia missed the opportunity in the just ended general elections, to narrow the gender gap on achieving the 50-50 women and men representation in political positions.
“From our preliminary data analysis, the number of women elected to both Parliament and local government falls far below 20 percent and 8 percent respectively”, she said.
She said NGOCC expects that the President will consider nominating women for the 8 Members of Parliament in order to cushion the low numbers of women in Parliament.
Ms Mulenga explained that NGOCC stands ready to discharge the watchdog role of providing checks and balances to the new administration, in an objective, professional and independent manner.
NGOCC has since congratulated the President-elect Hakainde Hichilema and the Vice President-elect for winning the general elections.
She added that the victory is a demonstration of the confidence that the Zambian people have in the UPND Alliance.
Ms Mulenga has expressed gratitude to President Edgar Lungu for the service rendered to the country.
51% of global population is female, so at least half of Zambian MP’s, mayors, councilors, PS, etc should also be female, life is very simple!
Appointments should be on merit and not on gender.
Merit should be the guiding principle and not quotas based on political expediency. Yes we need equal gender representation and it is an insult to our able and capable women to think they can only get a spot through appointments favours. Let them contest the elections just like anyone else. Zambia has so many problems right now and we need qualified people to resolve them.
Merit must drive appointment though we can apply a policy of ladies first but they must be competent….otherwise just being a female sitting and begging from handouts from a man then ati appointment me sole william
So why didnt women voters not vote for women candidates
50-50 shall remain a myth unless more professional and credible women made themselves politically visible
Apart from nalumango mention a woman in upnd who has a high post. We told you hh is a tribal chauvinist. All those women that vote for him should be ashamed. He went let us wlfe speak and you think he will appoint you. Fuseke
It is not about equal presentation, it’s about the caliber of an individual, this is a society we are talking about. U can’t appoint an individual on basis of gender no.