By Prof. Ruth Meena
There are three cases of violence in which women have been targeted between 6th and 10th October 2015. The reported case of the Kilosa woman who was physically attached by her husband because of party affiliation (she decided to join CHADEMA while her husband is a CCM member). In another incident, the Musoma contestant Easter Matiku of CHADEMA had her car smashed, while the Bunda contestant Easter Bulaya has been arrested two times by police for allegations of instigating chaos hence threatening peace and security.
The official explanation for Easter Bulaya’s two incidents is that she incited chaos, which threatened electoral peace. In this recent incident, the story goes that Easter Bulaya had intended to attack the police station with her supporters hence was arrested by the police. A media interview with Easter Bulaya is that she had visited police office to find out the reasons for the detention of one of her campaign team member. From her point of view, she has been a target of police harassment as a mechanism to weaken her (Mtanzania October 10th 2015). Another unofficial explanation is that CHADEMA supporters attacked the CCM’s contestant’s wife, an incident retaliated by CCM youth who started fighting back.
For whatever reasons, police arrests of candidates and particularly a female candidate (two times with differing explanations) who is competing with a long serving candidate who is also senior cabinet official is bound to raise questions related to excessive use of force as well as Violence Against Women (VAW) issues.
Interestingly comments from observers, reveal use of abusive language particularly by CCM supporters and candidates against UKAWA candidates. This seem to be treated lightly as abusive language cannot potentially incite and cause electoral violence. The political environment is volatile to violence, and police treatment of any of the major contending candidate is likely going to provoke acts of violence particularly by the young members of these parties.
In the incident where a woman was assaulted by a husband on ideological (or party affiliation) differences, it is a powerful message that the presumed private sphere is public, and requires public resources to protect the security of women whose political choices are translated into VAW at domestic level.
Observations from media 8thand 9thOctober 2015
The media has portrayed the election as a competition between two candidates Lowassa vs Magufuli. This is what dominates front pages of all the media. Unfortunately, the debate between the two is not based on ideological, policy differences. Both have a list of practical problems which they are going to address without clearly articulated strategies. These issues do not directly touch on gender equality principles or women specific issues. Women are urged to support and vote for these candidates in anticipation of some transformation which does not include transforming the patriarchal structures.
The electoral manifestos, of the political parties of the two contending presidential candidates neither have gender equality as an election issue nor do they have women specific issues as part of their priority focus issues. The CCM manifesto identifies four main areas, corruption, defence & security and youth employment. Ironically the outgoing President who is also the chairperson of the ruling party made a commitment before global governments that gender equality principle was going to be given priority focus during the implementation of the SDGs.
The CHADEMA Manifesto which represent UKAWA collective electoral principles does not mentions issues of gender equality or women’s some of specific interests. Some of the principles spelt out can be used against the interest and rights of women. For instance one of the principles is “Respect of family, nationalism, as well as traditions and norms that protect national interest”. It is well known that some of the norms, traditions and family values undermine women’s rights. This cautionary note is not addressed in the election manifesto.
Comments from the Observers
Some of the irregularities noted by the observers which require some immediate attention include: Use of abusive language particularly by some of the CCM supporters against the UKAWA presidential candidate. One of the local news paper noted that the UKAWA presidential candidate was insulted more than 200 hundred times. Although he law prohibits abusive or insults no action is being taken by authority. If this way of communicating political differences gets institutionalised, we might be creating a political culture based on abusive language which can potentially threaten the social values of civility.
Secondly the observers noted that in some of the campaigns, vernacular languages became main media of communications. This to my opinion should not be entertained as it is taking this nation back to the ages of parochial politics. This is a threat to the social fabric of our nation.
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