Sunday, 14 September 2014

Zambia's Female MPs Now Reach 20 After Recent By-Elections



Victoria Kalima
By Paul Shalala

The number of female Members of Parliament in Zambia's National Assembly has now hit 20 following the election of three women during by-elections held last week.

On Thursday, three female MPs Victoria Kalima (Kasenengwa), Christabel Ngimbu (Zambezi West) and Margaret Miti (Vubwi) where elected following tightly contested for polls.
Margaret Miti
The by-elections where a trendsetter as more than 4 females where adopted to contest the 5 seats.

Despite this huge achievement in the promotion of women participation in decision making, the number of male MPs is still higher than that of females.

Of the 158 MPs (both elected and nominated), Zambia has more than 125 male MPs.
Others elected where male MPs who included Dawson Kafwaya (Solwezi Central) and  and Davies Chisopa (Mkushi South).
Christabel Ngimbu

The elections retired Dr. Eustarkio Kazonga who represented the people of Vubwi for several years and was a Deputy and Cabinet Minister in the MMD.

Another old timer  who was retired in the by-elections was Charles Kakoma who was in his second term in Zambezi West.

Below are statements from the women's movement congratulating the electorates for electing the female MPs:





PRESS STATEMENT
ZNWL ELATED AT THE ELECTION OF THREE WOMEN AS MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

For Immediate Release                                                                  12 September 2014 
The Zambia National Women’s Lobby is elated at the election of Ms. Victoria Kalima (MMD), Ms. Margaret Miti (PF) and Ms. Christabel Ngimbu (PF) as Members of Parliament for Kasenengwa, Vubwi and Zambezi -West respectively, in the recent by elections. The number of women in Parliament has now increased from 17 to 20 and the percentage of women in Parliament now stands at 12.6% from 10.7%. We appeal to the PF Government to appoint the newly elected women MPs into Cabinet to further increase the number of women in decision making positions.
The election of the three honourable members of parliament is testimony of the progress made towards society’s acceptance of women as equal partner in development.
We commend their political parties for having afforded the three women an opportunity to serve the nation at a high level and further extend our gratitude to the people of these three constituencies for choosing women to represent their interests.
We urge the three members of parliament to work hard and diligently serve the people who have placed their hopes and aspirations in their hands.
We urge political parties to continue adopting women so that they have a chance of serving at national decision making positions to bring about gender equality which is a conduit for national development.
ZNWL remains committed to enhancing the participation of women in leadership at various levels and will continue to advocate and lobby for improved recognition of women as equal partners in development.

BEAUTY KATEBE (MS)    
ZAMBIA NATIONAL WOMEN’S LOBBY BOARD CHAIRPERSON







PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
12th September 2012

NGOCC CONGRATULATES NEWLY ELECTED FEMALE PARLIAMENTARIANS

The Non Governmental Organisations’ Coordinating Council (NGOCC) congratulates the three newly elected female Members of Parliament, who were elected during the last round of by -elections held on 11 September 2014.

As a movement, we are glad that voters in the three constituencies have elected women to preside over the constituencies.

Three out of the five winners in the by-elections held in North Western, central and eastern provinces are women, namely Ms. Christabel Ngimbu (Zambezi West), Ms. Margret Miti (Vubwi), and Ms. Victoria Kalima (Kasenengwa).

NGOCC has been deeply concerned with the low number of women in decision-making positions especially in Parliament and Cabinet. It is totally unacceptable that 50 years after independence, only four (4) women are Cabinet Ministers and 20 are Members of Parliament.

Hence we wish to congratulate all the political parties that adopted women as candidates. We hope that they will continue to adopt more women as their candidates especially as the country prepares for the 2016 Presidential, Parliamentary, and Local Government elections.

The election of the three in the last by - elections is a further demonstration of the growing confidence the Zambian people have in the leadership of women.

There is need for the country to begin to formulate policies that will accelerate the country’s attainment of the SADC Gender protocol of 50 – 50 representation for both men and women by 2015.


for/NGOCC


Engwase B. Mwale
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR


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