Maputo — The chairperson of Mozambique's Constitutional Council, the country's highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, Lucia Ribeiro, has expressed her concern at the low number of women proposed as mayoral candidates for the municipal elections scheduled for 11 October.
Speaking in Maputo on Tuesday at a workshop on "the political empowerment of women in Mozambique', held under the slogan "Wake up! Without women there is no democracy', Ribeiro asked how many women are being proposed as heads of the lists of candidates for the municipal elections. (The head of the list of the winning party in any municipality automatically becomes the mayor).
She could not answer that question because not all the competing parties have yet submitted their lists of candidates to the Constitutional Council. The deadline for doing so is Friday.
But from the names submitted by the three main parties - the ruling Frelimo Party and the two opposition forces, Renamo and the MDM (Mozambique Democratic Movement) - it is clear that women only account for a small percentage of mayoral candidates.
"In the interval between elections, shouldn't we work so that 30, 40 or 50 per cent of the candidates for the municipal elections are women?', asked Ribeiro.
"Women are the majority of the population in Mozambique and in the world', she said. "But they are not sufficiently represented in the most varied sectors, including in politics and governance'.
"So we can say that our democracy is weak, because it does not reflect either the majority or the diversity of the population', Ribeiro continued. "Giving opportunities to women means reducing the obstacles they have to overcome. And this is work for all of us, for families, for society, for institutions, and for politicians'.
The Deputy High Commissioner of Canada, Lindsey Partridge, recognized the advances made by Mozambique in terms of gender parity. "The representation of women in political decision making has been increasing across the globe, and Mozambique is a good reference in Africa', she said.
"Women's participation should not be just a question of numbers', she added. "It should be expressed in an improvement in governance , in decision taking and in the welfare of our societies'.
