Abstract
Zambia has since 1991 run a relatively open democracy with now more than 100 radio and 40 registered television stations plus a host of vibrant social media platforms. This chapter critically reflects upon the vivacious nexus of political communication between the media and the elections with regard to women’s representation. It is argued that generally media sideline opposition political parties just as they neglect and abuse women. It is similarly contended that keys to women’s political exclusion are not with the globally acclaimed quota allocation system for testing a country’s inclusionary policies, but rather are with the Bechdel Test. Such a test would help scholars to easily remove the “chaff” from the wheat among nations.
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Notes
- 1.
This term was coined by Lamb et al. (2000). Paper “A Social Informatics Perspective on Socio-Technical Networks,” presented to the American Conference on Information Systems. The Paper is available on http://lamb.cba.hawaii.edu/pubs/stnwtppr.htm.
- 2.
Ms. Palme together with former USA President Jimmy Carter headed the Carter Centre and NDI’s observation mission to Zambia in 1991. She made this statement on leaving Zambia, giving way to President Carter who had arrived in Lusaka to take over the observatory mission. Mr. Carter remained in Zambia until after the elections winner, Frederick Chiluba was announced and inaugurated as Zambia’s new president.
- 3.
According to the ECZ (2017), apart from Nawakwi, there were 106 women who contested for parliament; 31 at the Council Chair a Mayoral level; and 425 as ordinary councillors. As a result, there are 26 women parliamentarians (from 17 in the last parliament); 9 (nine) women leading the various councils as Mayors or Council Chairs; and 125 seating as councillors (compared to 85 prior to the 2016 elections) across the country.
- 4.
Two years later, in 2018, Mwanzah defected to the ruling PF and became one of the PF’s leading spokespersons.
- 5.
This is in spite of the provision in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Number Five: Gender Equality that requires that signatory nations like Zambia, ensue women’s “full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership AT ALL LEVELS of decision-making in political, economic and PUBLIC life;” and the African Union’s Aspiration Six of the Agenda 2063 that impels African countries to urgently work towards “full gender parity, with women occupying at least 50% of elected public offices;” and the reality of the fact that Africa is now past the midpoint of the African Union’s implementation framework of the African Women’s Decade, 2010–2020, that should have accelerated women’s equality and empowerment in all areas of public life (UN 2016; AU 2016; AWD 2010).
- 6.
Apart from the provision that the two deputy Speakers of parliament shall not be “of the same gender” the new Constitution states that there shall be established a Gender Equity and Equality Commission whose roles include that all institutions comply with legal and “other standards relating to gender equality” and that any nominations and appointments shall ensure that “fifty per cent of each gender is nominated or appointed from the total available positions.” Furthermore, the Constitution provides that candidates, regardless of gender, “shall have access to the media, especially during election campaigns;” and that the Constitution shall be interpreted according the national values of “equity, social justice, equality and non-discrimination” (Government of Zambia 2016).
- 7.
Here, a deliberate distinction is made to avoid the popular confusion and terminological in-exactitude between Government media and Public media. According to Article 19 (2006: 36–44), the two are not the same thing. State media are those which are “controlled by the State and represent State interests.” Government media are controlled by the government in office and represent “the viewpoint of the executive.” Public media are owned and funded by the public out of public funds but are “accountable” to the public; while Public Service media are tasked with the remit to publish material “in the public interest,” although these may not necessarily be publicly-owned, or funded. However, Public media “should always have a public service remit”.
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Phiri, S. (2020). Political Communication Among Female Candidates and Women Electorates in Zambia. In: Omotoso, S. (eds) Women's Political Communication in Africa. Contributions to Political Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42827-3_6
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