Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) in Zomba Diocese has called on faith and traditional leaders to encourage women to participate in politics ahead of the 2025 general elections.
CCJP Programmes Manager in Zomba Diocese, Augustine Mailosi, made the call at Traditional Authority Mwambo’s area in Zomba where he met with faith and traditional leaders to discuss the importance of women’s participation in politics, saying women have the capacity and potential to actively participate in the sound politics.
The CCJP is implementing a project called Enhancing Women Participation in Politics ahead of the 2025 General Election with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
He said CCJP decided to engage with faith and traditional leaders considering that they are influential among their congregants and subjects, adding that CCJP will embark on more community engagements to raise awareness on the importance of voting for women in elective positions in the 2025 general elections.
Mailosi also called on organisations to support women aspirants with financial resources so that they should be able to compete for positions of their choice in the forthcoming elections.
“We appeal to those that wish to compete in the elections to come forward and declare their interest so that their capacity should be built in readiness of the elections,” he added.
Group Village head Kadewere said the engagement meeting with faith and traditional leaders was relevant and pledged that traditional leaders will support women who shall come forward to declare their interest to compete for elective positions in the 2025 general elections.
He condemned men who decampaign women during political campaign meetings, saying this has no room in modern democracy as this discourages women from participating in politics.
Miriam Chimombo, who attended the engagement meeting, said would rather vote for women will aspire to elective positions and called on women in Traditional Authority Mwambo’s area to give fellow women adequate support to ensure more women representation in Parliament and the full council.
