The advice was made recently by the Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA) advocacy officer, Sheikha Haji Dau.
She said the strategy should be applied now when political parties
are in the process of selecting candidates for the upcoming 2015 General
Election.
She said for a long time women, young people and those with
disabilities have been sidelined in politics, but political parties were
better placed to reverse the trend.
“What they need is to have strategies which will make sure that
people from these groups are identified, nominated and elected to the
posts,” she said.
She gave an example of the 2010 General Election when only three
women became MPs through constituencies. This was equal to six percent,
she said, while only one young person, equal to two percent and no one,
or zero per cent, was elected.
She said in order for Zanzibar to be in line with international and
regional requirements of gender equality and social inclusion, efforts
to increase their number should be championed from within political
parties. She described them as the gate keepers of the posts.
The programme manager of the Zanzibar Youth Forum (ZYF), Maulid
Suleiman Juma, advised political parties to sensitise their youth so
that they come out and contest in constituencies instead of isolating
them from the posts.
He said the youth were the most productive group in political
parties. However, he lamented, when it comes to political posts they are
left in the cold because of absence of strategies to recruit them into
the positions.
Calls to increase the number of women, young and those with
disabilities in the electoral posts are mounting and being championed by
UN Women.
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