The Registrar of Political Parties, Judge Francis Mutungi has stressed the need for including women in decision making bodies in political parties.
Judge Mutungi at a workshop to review report on the analysis of gender gaps in the legal documents of political parties in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday 25th April 2023 said that women are the great asset for political parties, so they should be given a place in the decision-making process.
“Women are the great asset for political parties, due to their abundance and enthusiasm in managing the activities of their political parties at all times, especially during elections,” he said at the workshop organised by Tanzania Centre for Democracy (TCD) in collaboration with the Switzerland Embassy in Tanzania.
He said political parties must have deliberate strategies to ensure that they increase the number of women participating in decision-making positions.
He said that the level of their participation in decision-making bodies is still low compared to that provided in the constitution and the Political Parties Act.
Judge Mutungi emphasised that, political parties are institutions that have the opportunity to produce political leaders, so it is important that they have foundations that focus on different groups of society in leadership.
“True democracy is the one that provides equal opportunities for the participation of all groups in society,” said Judge Mutungi.
On his part, the Vice Chairman of TCD, Professor Ibrahim Lipumba commented that there is a need to increase the number of women in democratic system.
“The growth of democracy includes increasing women in decision-making levels,” Prof Lipumba said.
Presenting an analysis, a lecturer of the Open University of Tanzania, Dr Victoria Lihiru, said that many political parties have written very good preambles to their constitutions involving the participation of women, but they do not observe them.
“There are no deliberate efforts by political parties to involve women in the position of decision making,” Dr Lihiru said.
“There are issues that must be looked at their sensitivity, as how Union issues are important, the same to gender issues,”
Dr Lihiru said that the political parties need to go through the report carefully so that they will work on the shortcomings seen and receive the recommendations of the report, with the aim of promoting the participation of women in decision-making levels.