THE Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP) has conducted a three-day seminar to build the leadership capacity and skills of more than 40 women politicians from various political parties with the aim of preparing talented and committed women leaders ahead of 2025 general elections.

The seminar also focused on discussing the conduct of the local government elections held on November 27 this year in a gender perspective.

It further aimed to identify and discuss the challenges that women candidates faced during the campaign, on the day of voting and during the results announcement for the purpose of setting a common way forward of surviving such challenges in future elections.

Speaking at the seminar in Dar es Salaam at the weekend, Deogratius Temba, TGNP's Associate Facilitator for Women in Leadership said that the seminar comes after the first seminar held at the beginning of November aimed at preparing women candidates from various political parties to know the laws and regulations of the 2024 local government elections.

"We taught them to understand the laws and regulations that prohibit gender based violence, humiliation of women’s dignity during the campaign period.

We taught them how to bid for their policies and how to relate their policies to issues related to gender equality," he said.

He said that TGNP built the capacity of these women to go and motivate their fellow women to participate in the election by contesting for street and village positions or by voting.

"This seminar aims to evaluate the entire election process to identify various shortcomings including the implementation of local government election regulations;

Their answers will give us the light to advise the government in the preparation of the 2025 general election," said Temba.

Hanifa Mkula, a resident of Mazense Ward, Muembeni Street has won the seat of the local government delegation through Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), she said that she competed with ten men in the process of finding candidates within the party.

"In the election, I won with 1,148 votes. Getting a leadership position through politics is still a big challenge for women due to the economic situation. TGNP training has helped me construct ideas, how to reach voters, influential approaches and address issues that concern people, especially when there are challenges in their areas," said Hanifa.

She said that in order to win, she had to campaign house by house which enabled her to meet the voters and answer the questions they had.

Sarah Katanga, a member of the opposition CHADEMA National Central Committee representing a group of disabled people who ran for Kivule Street, says that the 2024 local government elections were not free and fair.

"The women who represent the opposition political parties have been robbed of our victory even though the people voted for us. Elections have been spoiled by disqualifying candidates, rejecting objection appeals and stealing votes;

Dreams of empowering a woman to become a leader with this Constitution are impossible because it favours a one-party system," said Sarah.

She said that Rule 36 of the 2024 Local Government Election Rules ordered the assistance of people with disabilities but that wasn’t the case during the campaign period and on the day of voting.