BDP women lobby for 50% quota
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday October 23, 2023 06:00
In an interview with Mmegi this week, the BDP Women’s Wing deputy chairperson, Veronica Lesole, said the hope is to have women occupy 50% of the seats contested in the primaries for both Parliament and council.
“We have deployees from the regions to encourage women to step up and show interest in contesting for elections. The problem is that women decry lack of finance as it is expensive to run for elections.
One of the challenges women are facing is the fact that the BDP does not fund candidates for the primaries, it only supports in the general election campaigns,” Lesole said.
She pointed out that the Wing cannot force any woman to contest, but can only encourage them. Lesole, however, emphasised they want women's merit and capability to contest pound to pound with men.
She said this is not pushing women for the sake of it but ensuring that the wing presents credible candidates. “After Bulela Ditswe, we are going to be supporting women who are going to contest for the general election,” she continued. Historically, even with low numbers, the BDP has always presented more women to contest for general elections than opposition parties.
The party managed to get Kebatshabile Disele, the first woman into Parliament in 1974 as Specially Elected, followed by Dr Gaositwe Chiepe five years later. The first opposition woman Member of Parliament (MP) Dr Habaudi Hubona was elected during the 2014 bye-elections in Francistown West, only to lose nine months later at the general elections. Currently, the representation of women in the Botswana Parliament remains the lowest in SADC at 11%. Only seven women made it to Parliament following the 2019 General Election with only three of them being elected whilst the rest were appointed as Specially Elected Members of Parliament.
Different civil society organisations have called on the government of Botswana to be inclusive and deliver gender equality. Botswana has seen a drop in women’s representation since it peaked in 1999 at 18% for national and 23% for local government. “More women in politics lead to more inclusive decisions and can change people’s image of what a leader looks like, but women still face barriers like unfavourable electoral systems, lack of finance and resources, culture to mention but a few,” a recent Gender Links report revealed. In the same report, political women decried unfair coverage by the media as compared to men.
According to the report, women's contention is that they are criticised by the media about their looks, and personal issues but not about their merit or capabilities. They believe that the media favours men while disadvantaging women.