ZESN - Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe 13. Women and Elections Analysis of Gender representation Zimbabwe is a state party to regional and International instruments that recognize the need for, and the removal of, all barriers to women's participation in politics. These include the1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which recognises the holding of political office as a right for all. Various other instruments such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW); and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women, all reiterate the importance of affording women political positions and mandate state parties to eliminate all barriers that prevent women from actively participating in the political sphere. In particular, Article 9 of Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa states that 'State Parties shall take specific positive action to promote participative governance and the equal participation of women in the political life of their countries through affirmative action, enabling national legislation and other measures to ensure that: a. women participate without any discrimination in all elections; and b. women are represented equally at all levels with men in all electoral processes…'. Although the Electoral Act has been amended to include gender mainstreaming and gender equality in electoral processes, it is not explicit on how this should be done to ensure women are equally represented in political spheres. Even though women's groups have been calling for ZEC to reject political party lists which do not have 50 % representation, ZEC has made it clear that this was beyond its mandate. Figure 9: Women candidates in the 2018 Presidential Elections Zimbabwe Harmonised Election 4 23 of Presidential candidates were Women. Promoting Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe 30 July 2018 The continuing low representation of women in political parties points to the lack of compliance with the Constitution and international conventions. For the 2018 harmonised elections, none of the contesting political parties attained 5050 representation between males and females for the National Assembly elections. Rather, 91% and 90% of the candidates for the major contending parties, namely ZANU-PF and the MDC Alliance respectively, were male. Although Zimbabwe has ratified these frameworks, they have not been domesticated into the country's laws. At the national level, the Constitution of Zimbabwe mandates the State to promote gender balance in all spheres of life. Section 17 states that the 'The State must promote full gender balance in Zimbabwean society'. Also, women are guaranteed the same rights as men in terms of Section 56 of the Constitution, to equal treatment, including enjoying equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural, and social spheres. As illustrated in Figure 10 below, the two major parties have fielded less than 10% female candidates as their contestants. Recording a relatively high figure is the Thokozani Khupe led MDC-T with 20% of its candidates being female. 52 REPORT ON THE 30 JULY 2018 HARMONISED ELECTIONS ZESN