On 18th February 2011, Ugandans participated in a second general election to elect the next president under the mult party dispensation. The electoral process leading to this general election is multifaceted with different levels of activities to be accomplished prior to election. In this piece we examine how men and women have faired under selected elements of the electoral process including nominations, campaigns and presidential manifestoes.

How was the participation of women during nominations?

Beti Olive Kamya of Uganda Federal Alliance being nominated at Namboole on Monday

During nominations low participation of women was observed. For example in Kamuli District, out of the nominated district chairpersons by 4-5th November who NRM, UPC, DP, FDC/IPC respectively and three independents, making a total of seven none was female. With reference to this area, it was established that no woman stood for nominations. Lack of candidates for some posts at local level was reported as an issue forinstance in Buwekula Constituency and Gomba in Mpunga parish Kyegonza subcounty Gomba district no woman councilor showed up for nomination.

The following case study may throws some light on some of the challenges faced by female candidates

In Nyora Constituency/District on 5h/11/2010 at about 1:08p.m. a lady by the names Ann(not real name) came to the Electoral commission Office asking the Secretary for her Nomination forms. The Secretary told her that her nomination forms were not there. Later on she went by boda boda motorcycle and before they could take off, her narration was as follows. “My problem is, I came here to Electoral Commission office on Wednesday. I was told we go to Obuku (County Headquarters) Okay, I took my documents there for checking on Wednesday. They told me I have forged signatures, then I said, I am a teacher how can I forge signatures. Then I told them some of the women have not gone to school they scribbled. Now after that the Chairperson – Westerner, I don’t know his name he is brown that he was taking me to prison. Then after that, he called other people on the table then I told them I had not forged the signatures. After that I asked them to give me my papers because you people you don’t want to nominate me, then I walked and when I walked out they followed me, 2 police women who are working here and another man and another lady, they said you can’t go with those papers (nomination papers). They refused me to take them, Nomination day for L.C.V Arapai for women, when I came to Obuku (County Headquarters) then I was told that you go and get seven people so I brought the 7 people today 5/11/2010, I left them seated there. They are tossing me. We have sent a person to Electoral commission to collect the Nomination papers from 8am – till now. Then I said let me go myself as they said my papers are here and I have come to find out about my papers the lady said the papers are not here. One of them is there (pointing at a certain man) I will show you. If they don’t want to give me my papers I am going to Kampala. They have no right to refuse with my papers they are paid money and corruption is there. When I went there, the police remarked that, that woman is very tough because of how I handled my land issue. They are connecting the issue of nomination with land”. DEMGroup observer

How is women participation under Uganda political parties?

With regard to key parties for example NRM, FDC, and DP, a big number of women candidates came up as independents and most of them were standing for women posts allegedly avoiding direct posts. For example in Baale one female when asked as to why she was not standing for a directly elected position, she answered that as far as women were concerned those directly elected positions were not meant for them. This shows that some women do not understand that they are free to compete for directly elected positions with men.

A closer look at Electoral commission returns of nomination for all positions and with regard to each party, indicates the following percentages;

Name of Party Number of women nominated

CP                              20%

DP                               31%

FDC                            31%

FIL                               0%

FPU                             0%

GPP                            0%

INDEPENDENT          31%

JEEMA                       12%

LDP                             20%

MVM                          0%

NRM                           43%

PPP                             15%

Going by these percentages shows that overall parties like NRM, DP and FDC have reasonable gender representation across all positions. We are still looking deeply at the returns to ascertain gender representation at parliamentary level with regard to different parties and regions.

What about campaigns:

Following nominations, presidential candidates began campaigning countrywide under EC program. Our assessment so far shows that some women candidates face a number of challenges that are varied. Several women candidates who were nominated told DEMGroup observers that being women they could not go out fully to campaign for many hours like men do because they have to do domestic work, on the other hand men can spend long hours with the electorate and can afford to eat and drink with the electorates but women have to go back home and prepare food for the family. So women who are ready to take on a political role have to do it in addition to their productive and reproductive roles;

“ women generally have fear to go out fully like men for they have to protect their marriages” said a female independent candidate DEMgGroup has explored this point further under focus group discussions on gender and

money.

Similarly, some of the challenges faced by women candidates include the fact that men do not want to be overtaken by women who do well in politics and women get viewed by some male candidates as a threat which reduces female chances in terms of support from male candidates.

How do party internal struggles affect women?

Internal completion within parties was perceived to affect women unfairly. For example in Mukono region, Galilaya parish, one candidate A was defeated by candidate B during the NRM primaries for woman councilor LC111 seat.

This happened as follows; during nominations A was the 1st to come and she was nominated and declared as a woman councilor for her place, after this, B also appeared for nominations as elected woman on NRM ticket for the same seat for woman councilor.

The returning officer sent B to the registrar’s office for NRM to declare her as the right candidate for the position and B was declared the winner councilor LC111 Galilaya sub county on the ticket of NRM and A came as an independent candidate for the same position. Such encounters while good for individual party arrangements they reduce the interest of many women from coming up for elective positions if they perceive not to be darlings of the party apparatus.

How far do party manifestoes address gender concerns?

Below is a gender assessment of key party manifestoes bearing in mind the fact that there is a women’s manifesto.

Since 2006 the Ugandan women movement has had a women’s manifesto clear on what the women of Uganda expect from political leaders. Designed to help women get common understanding of issues that they wanted parliament and the government of Uganda to address, the women’s manifesto was developed against the backdrop of the equal opportunities commission stated under article 32(2) of the Constitution and was meant to get more women interested in taking up leadership positions in politics especially parliament.

Among key issues on women’s manifesto agenda include eradication of poverty, economic empowerment, access to and control of land and other productive assets. A close look at current political party manifestos shows that gender issues have not been mainstreamed in almost all party manifestoes as seen from the following table.

Party Issues Gender Reflection

People’s Development Party (PDP): Agriculture, employment, Health-PDP give pregnant women, children below five years and the elderly free medical care, raise health workers salaries and increase funding for the health sector, energy, tourism The PDP manifesto is clear on key gender issues also high on the MGD list as maternal and child health. Apart from this mention of MCH then rest of the PDP manifesto seems to be blind as far as gender is concerned.

People Progressive Party (PPP) Federal, Rule of law, Public administration, Presidential term limits, corruption, oil, youth, Health-enhance access to health facilities Gender aspects have are not mainstreamed

Forum for Democratic Change(FDC): Agriculture, infrastructure, oil, federal, corruption, employment, environment, education, tax, health deliver quality health care for all, vulnerable groups The gender component seem not to be

mainstreamed clearly

Democratic Party(DP): Corruption, Jobs, Health-improve health service delivery in health and education by paying workers better and improving management, Federal, Agriculture, Education Gender aspects are not mainstreamed

National Resistance Movement(NRM): Youth, Corruption, Rural households, Agriculture, oil, Gender aspects are not mainstreamed Federal Alliance(FA) Federal and regional based governance Gender aspects not mainstreamed

The above is contrary to earlier party positions where majority have promised to mainstream gender concerns in their manifestos;

• · CP party earlier on promised to focus on capacity building for women in leadership and to reserve 40% quota
• · DP promised to make women’s league functional at all levels and to make genuine reforms to ensure women’s participation in politics
• · JEEMA promised to ensure justice and morality
• · PDP promised to deepen the women’s agenda by reforming and implementing the legal framework, mobilizing women to be part of the monetized economy and build capacities. One wonders what happened to the promises during manifesto development process.

Altogether, women representation in decision making in Uganda may not necessarily increase as a result of competitive politics perse, ring fenced positions under affirmative action are still necessary and have a key role to play in guaranteeing that some women take up political positions. It appears there is a lot of unfinished business with regard to addressing the underlying causes of low participation of women in decision making in Uganda in general and electoral process in particular (nominations, campaigns, party primaries). We need to invest in strategies that would make the women’s agenda every party’s agenda.

By Jacqueline Arinaitwe-Mugisha, Gender DEMgroup specialist