By Robert Kumwenda

As the country draw closer to tripartite elections in 2019 there are call from various quarters of the society to promote women in various positions, Professor John Chisi Umodzi Party (UP) leader says his party is ready to promote them in various positions.

He said if the women themselves must show interest they are ready to help them in achieving their goals of taking part in key positions in the party.

“The problem is that they are not showing interest and there is nothing that we can do about it, but the door is open and they must work hard and have a strong desire for this to happen,” he said.

The UP leader said it is very important for women to take part in politics but they should not underrate themselves because they make a larger part of the country’s population.

Chisi said very few women have shown interest contest for various positions under the party’s ticket as the country prepares for elections next year.

“The other problem that we have is that women do not support fellow women when they show interest to compete for various positions and they themselves they do not want to see a fellow women prosper to a higher position because of jealousy,” he said.

There are few women that are in key positions in government as well as in parliament despite calls for the 50-50 campaign by some gender rights activists.

Political parties are being encouraged to put women in key positions of their parties as one way of promoting women participation in politics.

Currently, it is only the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) that has put women in the key positions of vice president of the party for eastern and northern regions respectively.