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| Women in Manyama area socialising after meeting ZEC and WCoZ |
Perpetua Murungweni
Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) has called for increased women participation in politics by partnering with Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to teach women about participation in national politics.
On June 11, 2021 WCoZ invited ZEC to deliver voter education to Manyama women teaching them on how best they can improve their participation in politics as well as procedures required in the voting processes.
“As WCoZ Masvingo, we have seen that there is less participation of women in politics especially in the rural areas because they lack knowledge and information about politics and elections. The move of offering voter education to women is to empower them with political knowledge so that they equally participate with men in politics especially those women in the rural areas who lack such knowledge,” said Belinda Mwale.
ZEC district elections officer, Gertrude Murumbi said they had increased voter education to raise awareness for women who live in the rural areas on how to conduct the voting processes.
“Voter education is a way of informing people on how to vote and the necessary requirements needed to carry out the voting processes, especially women in the rural areas as they lack access to such information,” said Murumbi.
Murumbi also explained the voting system called proportional representation meant for the senatorial elections, in which every first seat in every political party is given to a woman.
“It was discovered that women are left out in politics, so this voting system is meant to uplift women in politics,” she said.
ZEC district elections officer also highlighted that the educational level of an individual does not count in politics.
“Most women are discouraged from participating in politics because of their levels of education, but as ZEC we are saying that does not count when it comes to participation in political activities,” said Murumbi.
One of the participants expressed her gratitude to the voter education they received which will in turn stimulate women participation in politics unlike in the past scenario in which they were restricted.
“We are grateful for the voter education that we have received, in the past we were left out because of patriarchal society beliefs where we were told that politics is about leadership and leadership is meant for men. Now that we are educated and have a better understanding of politics we are going to participate and we are not going to be left out,” she said.
