“Reflections on Women and Democracy in Tanzania after Thirty Years of Multipartism”

By
Hanif Tuwa
Researcher/Consultant on Gender and Leadership
haniftuwa@gmail.com

December 2022

Introduction

Multipartism is a political system that embodies pluralism and champions the right for equal
participation. Multipartism is presently the global norm and considered a standard yardstick for a
democratic system. From a gender perspective, any system in society, whether in political or
social realms, is meaningful as long as any gender differences are assured not to be turned into
basis for discriminatory practices. This paper argues that, the contextual factors that precipitated
institutionalization of multipartism in Tanzania harbors an important lesson that mark a starting
point in this review of the state of multipartism after thirty years. The mode of the transition from
one-party statehood into multi-party democracy was determined and maneuvered by a few
political elites. The problematic of multiparty democracy failing to achieve gender equality was
born at this point in history, not because the people’s voices were disregarded during the
referendum, rather for the lack of gender inclusion and especially sidelining of women in the
process.
In retrospective, the multiparty transition stood in sharp contrast to the inclusive nature of the
struggle for independence, where strong women like Bibi Titi Mohammed played an active role
in political mobilization and morale-boosting for the nationalists during the times of great
uncertainty. Women stood side-by-side with men in the build-up to the peaceful transition to
independence in 1961; fast forward to 1992, women were hardly visible in the transition to
multipartism. At this point, women activists, academicians and organizations spearheading
initiatives to transform unequal gender relations because the political transition had coincided
with the fourth wave of civil society movement. 1While women were claiming their space in the
civil society, they were disengaged and sidelined in the redistribution of political power – a
critical resource traditionally owned by men since the pre-colonial times. While taking the first
step into democracy, women were left behind. What came afterwards, throughout the thirty years,
has been the impact of this misstep on side of the women organizations, and on the other hand,
failure of the political elites to consider gender equality among the core principles of
“democracy”.
Multipartism is supposed to provide for a chance for women to be heard and to participate in
political life on equal footing as men do. Globally, gender equality has seen remarkable progress
over the past four decades and this improvement has occurred across every region. Africa has
shown the second fastest rate of improvement, progressing from 0.32 in 1975 to 0.54 in 2017 2. At
the country level, data from Statista3 shows that the gender gap index score has been stable at 0.7

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between 2016 and 2022, ranking above neighboring countries in terms of transparency and
accountability. Still this data means women are 28% less likely to have the same opportunities as
men, and the country is in 13 th place in the region its performance in political empowerment
category has consistently been low. In the 2019-2021 period, Tanzania has been ranked in the 75 th
place out of 137 in political transformation index, and slightly lower at 84 th place in governance
index. Indeed, there has been little improvement in women’s participation and representation in
the political parties’ leadership. Of course, there are references and insertions about gender
equality in the constitutions, regulations and policies of almost all of the 17 registered political
parties, which nonetheless have yet to elevate women’s status to and representation in the
national party leadership nor created supportive environment for women nomination and
candidature.4
When exclusion of women from the key political institutions and processes at such appalling
proportions, the quality of democracy is affected from the lack of inputs of those excluded and
the degree of legitimacy. Democracy’s sustenance in any form of political system depends on the
extent of social and gender inclusion, because this is what guarantees justice in the broadest
sense. Against this background, this paper discusses the milestones and challenges, and offers a
way forward towards a gender-inclusive multiparty political system.
Concepts
As a concept, Inclusivity does not have a singular meaning. Inclusivity is embedded as a
component of a socially-balanced democracy5. In this context, inclusivity tied to” participation”
of all people regardless of sex or other gender variables, and power distribution between women
and men in the political structures and processes, and how decisions are made by them. Further,
Inclusivity of democracy further relates to having space for dialogue or discussion to maximize
diversity of views. From this basis, we can reflect on the realities of women’s access to the
opportunities and participate in political processes, as the basis to assess the thirty years of
multipartism in Tanzania.
Discussion
Government of Tanzania has taken some important steps in meeting some of its commitments
made, both to its people and to the international community, to improve democratic governance.
The highlights are few. Mainstreaming gender into the national legal frameworks for women’s
political participation6: the national legal framework to a significant degree cherishes ‘gender
equality’ as a principle, whereby the Constitution of United Republic Tanzania Article 12 [1] [2]
clearly assures all people are equal before the law and guarantees participatory rights in public
affairs. Further, the Political Parties Act [PPA] chapter 258, which is the principal legislation for
representative democracy in Tanzania, provide for gender parity and non-discrimination in
pollical parties. Section 6A [2] of the PPA directs political parties to observe “the principles of
democracy and good-governance, non-discrimination, gender and social inclusion.” Also, Section
6A [5] require political parties to adopt gender as a policy agenda, and mainstream gender into
policy formulation [5[a], nomination of candidates to contest for political office [5[b], and
election or appointment of its leaders [5[c]. However, this law falls short to introduce gender
quotas and effective mechanisms to ensure political parties’ compliance. Currently, there are no
regulations to empower the Registrar of Political Parties to closely and effectively monitor the
progress made in gender mainstreaming in political parties.

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Capitalizing on the Special Seats as affirmative action measures: The system was initially
introduced in 1985 give then slow progression of women participation, and presently it is being
used both at the local and national levels. Constitutional reforms [Constitution Article 66-1[b]]
and government initiatives [decision to increase special seats to 40% in 2015] since 1995 has
significantly risen the number of women towards gender equality in parliament. The proportion
of women parliamentarians increased to 16.7% after the 1995, 21.5% in 2000, 30.3% in 2005,
35.8% in 2010, 37.2% in 2015 and remains at 37.1% after the 2020 general elections 7. This puts
Tanzania on the 23rd in the world and the 8 th in Africa in the women in parliament rankings.
Clearly, the quota system continues to be the most direct measure for tackling the imbalance and
enabling women’s voices to be heard and interests represented. Despite concerns exist over its
implementation8, representation-accountability dilemma 9, backlash10, and need for continuity,
there is now better representation and special seats has also led to better articulation of women’s
issues11.
Civil space and relations with the State: cognizant that civil society contribute significantly to
the promotion, protection and advancement of human rights including women’s rights, the laws
have to some extent provided a space for the civil society organizations to perform its various
roles, including democratic roles. Of course, this is one area that requires caution to assess, given
the fluidity of the civic space as provided by the state/Government in both new and old
democracies. Generally, the space for civil society is not very wide, and there have been different
phases, at some point Government cracking down on civil society actors and creating
environments that are not conducive for their work12.
Under the sixth government, however, there has been a dramatic shift towards consensus-building
approach and TGNP is one the civil society organizations taking the advantage by carrying
strategic engagement with the Government and the Council of Political Parties to increase women
participation in leadership and decision-making through mainstreaming gender in legal and
institutional frameworks governing electoral process 13. Improved relations with the state is
certainly a good indicator that civic space has started to widen and civil society organizations can
play more active democratic role to advance gender equality in politics.
Challenges
Overtime, there have been numerous reviews of women’s situation in Tanzania, and analyses
highlighting gender disparities and especially how women are disadvantaged and marginalized in
politics14. These have offered valuable insights [where sex-disaggregated data is available], and I
should stop myself from attempting to summarize or recapitulate. We highlight a few but key
challenges that stand on the way of attaining gender-inclusive democracy in Tanzania.
Proper framework to guide nomination and selection of candidates remains a serious gap and
poses a significant challenge to the effectiveness of special seats system. The special seats system
for women has no clear modalities of obtaining the candidates to enter the decision-making
machineries, neither does the Electoral Law nor the National Electoral Commission provide
guidelines, granting political parties excessive discretion which is prone to abuse of all sorts.
Political parties as the central organs of representative democracy have yet to perform this role
effectively. Political parties’ internal rules, regulations and nomination practices significantly and
adversely affect how women take part in party leadership and decision-making as well as in
elections. To illustrate, out of 11,933 candidates in the 2015 presidential, parliamentary and

3
council elections, only 904 [7.5%] were women. In absence of gender policies and gender-
responsive constitutions [which actually reflect lack of strong political will] and capacity for
gender mainstreaming, men are dominating all decision-making positions, structures and parties’
key meetings. Women Wings play marginal role as they lack mandate to determine women’s
agenda, and space in key meetings to influence women’s concerns and priorities.
Traditional and social norms play a far more inhibitive role against women aspiring and running
for political office at the local government levels – seen in the extremely low turnout for
village/street and hamlet chairperson positions and ward councilors, and with many capable
women opting for the Special Seats in Councils. Social upbringing under the shadows of
patriarchy has installed fear among women, and men’s negative attitudes about women’s role in
politics [as gender roles subject women to home care] has meant less support for women as
aspirants and candidates.
Uninformed citizenry tends to slow down the pace of deepening democracy, and more so the case
of Tanzania where majority of women especially in the rural areas are uneducated and unaware of
civic rights and duties, and thus have limited access and capacities to act in their own best
interests. While the level of political apathy is seemingly low following continued interventions
and the good work of civil society organizations, women remain far behind in understanding of
civic matters or are complicit even where their interests are overlooked by politicians. This has
also to do with limited freedoms of media and autonomy of civil society organizations, two
democratic actors who are well positioned to empower the people and increase their civic
awareness.
Electoral competitiveness at the individual level is very closely tied to money that is requisite to
garner support. Social networks and family support are hard to come by, and so many women
aspiring to contest find themselves at disadvantage by lack of financial base and capacity to
mobilize the resources. The double trouble is created by firstly the lack of party support to its
candidates, especially women who are often perceived as less electable than men, and nominated
to run in parties’ strongholds, and secondly weakness in the mechanisms for cracking down
corruption from within the party nomination process and in elections.
Conclusion and Way Forward
The journey of multipartism in Tanzania is telling about the lessons and opportunities that can be
harnessed towards attaining a more gender-balanced institutions and achieve gender justice in the
country. It is very clear that this forum has offered use the opportunity to reflect, sparked new
thinking among the stakeholders, and to reinforce the “knowns” where applicable. Pointing to the
way forward will mainly involve giving few recommendations, as follows:
It is important to take advantage of the turning wheel toward constitutional reforms, and putting
at the forefront the concerns and needs of historically disadvantaged and marginalized groups,
including women, in order to ensure inclusive democratic governance and broad legitimacy.
Foremost, gender inclusion must be reflected in the Constituent Assembly, the body responsible
for drafting the new constitution – meaning it should be mandated to adhere to gender equality
principle in its composition, and to reserve seats for groups representing the marginalized
sections of the society [including people with disabilities and youths]. More importantly, the
drafting process need to confront difficult and fundamental questions about the electoral system,

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with the consensus all over the world being, proportional representation is necessary for ensuring
gender equality in politics and leadership.
Reforms of the Election Law could be decisive to create a more conducive environment for
women to participate and increase chances for them to prevail in the intra party nominations. The
Government should especially amend Section 86A of the National Elections Act Cap 343 so that
to grant the electoral body mandate to establish a guideline for a uniform procedure for
nomination of women for the Special Seats; and harmonize this Act with the Political Parties Act
Cap 258 particularly Section 6A[5] to provide for mainstreaming of gender in political parties’
policies and nomination of candidates for the local and national elections.
Ensuring that democratic channels of communication and accountability between, on the one
hand, women and men, and on the other hand, the Government/polity—via the “traditional”
elections as well as through new channels, such as social media platforms, public dialogues such
as this one, in the periods between elections—are strengthened will be key for minimizing the
risk of facing democracy backlash as witnessed few years back and other countries. Inevitably, to
make sure that such communication is equally accessible among different social groups, civil
society organizations need to invest on developing strategies for spreading digital access to
women and marginalized rural populations.
As the key democratic actors, Political Parties should prioritize gender equality and inclusion, and
take stern measures towards facilitating women’s and other disadvantaged groups’ participation
and representation to ensure more responsive policies. Building on the ongoing dialogues
between civil society organizations and Registrar of Political Parties, the fate of increasing
women’s political participation lies with political parties’ adoption and implementation of the
Gender Policy and Voluntary Quotas, that would ensure inclusion of women and youth in
political decision-making processes and bodies. Thus, the Registrar of Political Parties should
encourage and facilitate the intra-party reform processes in ways that incentivize political parties
and integrate reward processes for those that are more inclusive and gender-responsive in terms
of their leadership structures and decision-making processes. 

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1
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13
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14
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