The Question
This question was posted on behalf of Hadija Miiro, member of the ACE Practitioners’ Network

Please give examples of EMBs with gender policies. Describe the policy and the impact it has had on mainstreaming gender issues in the electoral process of that particular country.
In your response, kindly give a brief description of the policy, and if it has or has not led to increased women participation in the electoral process as candidates and electoral officials. Electoral officials may include but not be limited to full time staff of the EMB, and temporary staff like registration and polling staff.
In addition to generic policies the following specific questions are of particular interest:
• Does the EMB impose any restrictions, on accredited domestic observers groups to include a minimum number or specific percentage for women participation?
• Usually, media houses, domestic observation groups and civil society organizations that conduct civil and voter education are funded by the EMB or directly by donors, are there any restrictions for organizations to include mandatory numbers or percentages for women participation?
 

Summary of responses
Although a number of countries are cited as having women in high positions in EMBs, or a high percentage of female staff at election time, very few are mentioned as having concrete gender policies. Lesotho and Sierra Leone are two countries said to good gender policies, although no details are given.

In Tanzania, the National Electoral Commission allocates seats to women, based on a proportion of the votes received by political parties. This ensures that at least 40 per cent of the parliament’s members are women.

Examples of related ACE Articles and Resources
Encyclopaedia:
• Gender Balance Responsibilities 
• Procedures for Recruitment of EMB Staff

External Resources
• Gender and Elections in Lesotho: Perspectives on the 2002 Elections, Puleng Lutuka, Mats’eliso Mapetla, Keiso Matashane-Marite, EISA Research Report No. 4,

• Democratic Local Government Elections in South Africa: A Critical Review, Sydney Letsholo, EISA Occasional Paper, Number 42, September 2006  

Names of contributors
1. John Maphephe
2. Surendra Thakur
3. Koul Panha
4. Mirimo Mulongo
5. Amon Emmanuel Chaligha
 

Hi Hadija Miiro,

A very interesting topic for Election Administrators indeed. Well there are number of elections commission in Africa) SADC region who has developed some policies and actual implemented them very well. Your are aware of the Chairperson and Deputy Chair for SA elections commission that they are Women at decision making level. Lesotho EMB and Sierraleone, another key examples. I think a direct official note can be made to request the source papers for their operational policy to promote gender mainstreaming in and out of the commission mandate. I know they have very good policy which might be more practical. I hope this will help. In the main time receive attached documents which can also help us to explore the topic more.

Well said My brother Rev John Maphephe. I am enjoying reading your thesis.

Dear Hadija, even the ECZ of Zambia has as the head a lady. An interesting observation that I made in Zambia during the elections on 20 September, was that most of the polling booths were manned (whoops administered), in many, many cases by all females teams and in most a majority of females. So certainly of the EMB side in Zambia there Ladies are in majority in numbers rather than policy.

Sadly in the case of candidates, there was an overwhelming majority of men. Hmm, seems that the Zambians trust women to run elections, but not stand in elections! SA is amongst  the world leaders in gender equity, so have a good look at or policies.

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Regards and Good luck,

Surendra Thakur

Hi Hadija,

You might try to pose your request in a group named International Experts Group in LinkedIn.  The number of contributions and comments there is quite substantial and there are many people there who are not members of the PN and therefore have not seen your request.

In Cambodia there is no regulation that the EMB shall impose any restrictions, on accredited domestic observers groups to include a minimum number or specific percentage for women participation.

Usually, media houses, domestic observation groups and civil society organizations that conduct civil and voter education are funded by donors. There is requirement for organizations to create a policy on gender and expected results of the project with percentages for women participation with principle of parity or at least 30% in order to reach the MDG

Bonjour Hadija,

En RD Congo,il n'y a pas de restriction dans l'accréditation des groupes d'observateurs domestiques, deux conditions être electeurs et introduire sa demande d'accréditation auprès de la Commission Electorale Nationale Indépendante (CENI) en encourageant les femmes.

Il n'y a pas non plus de restriction quant aux femmes de faire l'éducation civique et électorale.

Mirimo Mulongo Dieudonné

In Tanzania, at the moment there is no written arrangement that the EMB should be managed according to gender sensitivity. Nevertheless, most of the heads of departments are women. Also the overwhelming majority of polling assistants are women school teachers.

Regarding candidates, political parties decide who should be their candidate. However, gender mainstreaming is done through women seats which are proportionally allocated by the National Electoral Commission to a political party that secures at least 5 percent of the valid votes cast for Members of Parliament. The women seats should not be less than 40 percent of all seats in Parliament including the Attorney General and  5 seats nominated by the Zanzibar House of Representatives. Given that there are women who contest and win constituency seats  officially the current Tanzanian Parliament has more than 40 percent women representation.