Women lobbyists have increased their campaign and hype for female parliamentary and local government aspirants, saying they want women to get 40 per cent of the seats in both parliament and councils.

Emma Kaliya, chairperson of Human Rights Resource Centre (HRRC) said Malawi is not doing well in terms of putting women in decision making positions.

In 2009, she said, 43 per cent of the parliamentary seats were occupied by women but in 2014, the number dropped to 22 percent and this year, it is expected that the number will drop further to 40 per cent.

“People out there are laughing at us. We need to pull our socks up so that at least we should reach the target of 40 per cent. Democracy cannot work if women are not in decision making positions,” she said.

She said the situation was worrisome because there are more women in Malawi than men yet the nation wants men to have dominance over women.