The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) joins the rest of the world in commemorating International Women’s Day (IWD). The IWD is commemorated each year on the 9th of March to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women while calling for gender equality.
This year, the campaign is running under the theme #Think equal, build smart, innovate for change. In line with the focus of this year’s theme which is to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women, ZESN calls upon the government and political parties to enforce legislation that provides for equal representation of women in all spheres of life including in elected political positions. The decrease in the number of elected female parliamentarians in the 2018 harmonised elections calls for urgent measures to enhance the participation and representation of women.
With the clause on the reserved 60 proportional representation seats in the National Assembly lapsing after the 2018 election, ZESN notes that there is need for robust mechanisms to promote women’s presence and participation in politics and electoral processes to ensure gender equality as enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
ZESN remains committed to promoting electoral processes where men and women participate and are represented equally.
Source: Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
