God Cares Rights Foundation, implementers of the 50-50 Campaign in Rumphi, has called on female aspirants in the district to develop and make public their manifestos in time.
The organisation said if the aspirants fail to release the manifestos, the situation may affect the electorate as they might not have enough time to scrutinize them since the elections are just three months away.
God Cares Rights foundation Project coordinator Juliet Kandinda said it is very important for the aspirants to have their manifestos released in time saying this will act like a guideline during the campaign period and a tool that can enable voters make informed decisions before elections.
“We were reminding our aspirants to develop and make public their manifesto in time, as you know the manifesto will act as a guideline. Voters are expecting to hear from our female aspirants what are they promising once voted into power,” explained Kandinda.
According to Kandinda, women aspirants in the district were trained on how to develop their manifestos, knowing that campaigning for the women to be voted into power alone is not enough as people in their constituencies will be expecting to hear what change they are bringing once voted into power.
Concurring with Kandinda, UTM aspirant for Rumphi West Constituency Melanie Jatura Mkandawire said women aspirants should develop their manifestos in a way that they should attract voters’ attention saying poor development of manifesto is one factor that makes many aspirants not to be voted into office.
“Yes it very true that we need to develop our manifestos and bring them to the public in time so that voters should have enough time to scrutinize them and have informed minds ahead of the elections.
“I can tell you that through the training we had with God Cares on the development of a manifesto I have developed mine and as of now I am just waiting for the parties manifesto to be out to the public,” Mkandawire said.
Meanwhile, political parties and some aspirants in the country have not yet unveiled their manifestos.
Commenting on the issue, political analyst George Phiri of Livingstonia University said major political parties and other candidates are deliberately withholding the release of the manifestos in order to see their opponents’ first.
