A research conducted by the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) in collaboration with UN Women has revealed why the number of women aspirants for political posts is still low.

The research titled: An overview of Women’s Leadership and Political Participation in Tanzania, which was conducted last year, showed that the number of women who contested in the previous general election increased by one per cent, but would have been higher with mentorship programmes.

A senior lecturer from UDSM, Dr William Walwa, said when speaking yesterday at a one-day seminar organised by Tanzania Centre for Democracy (TCD) on why a few women participate in elections that political parties methodologies of selecting aspirants were wanting and should be changed. Dr Walwa said in 2015 the UN Women trained a total of 1,282 potential women aspirants to contest various positions, but only a few of them were successful.

“In our research we found challenges galore. Most political parties choose many aspirants who do not have the required qualities,” he said.