Malawi Elections : Domestic violence may affect women’s vote

Home-based violence may affect women's vote

Policy failures to deal with perpetrators of home-based violence could disturb the pattern of influence of the much-touted women's vote, one of Malawi's well known victim of domestic violence Alesi Sinosi has warned.

Sinosi told a group of aspiring women members of parliament who met in Blantyre this week that her own experiences of domestic violence could shed more light into the role of men (husbands) in influencing women's votes.

She said, despite the voting process being secret, most women in rural areas still felt the influence of their abusive husbands in the ballot box, a fear compounded by lack of strategies on how to deal with such men after betraying them by voting for the candidate of the woman's choice.

"I have lived under an abusive husband for a long time myself, and know what I am talking about.  I left my husband after the abuse went from bad to worse because I persevered from the early 1970's to some four years ago. If my husband told me to vote for a candidate of his choice, I would do that because of the fear," said Sinosi, from Malawi's Southern region district of Thyolo.

Sinosi, who is now part of a 'Women's Forum' initiative being implemented by Oxfam Malawi, electoral stakeholders needed to come up with anti-domestic violence strategies tailored specifically for local government, parliamentary and presidential elections, adding there were many Malawian women who were suffering in silent.

She said home-based violence had a direct bearing on electoral results, as some women still voted to suit the wishes of their husbands.

Eunice Chamgomo, NGO Gender Coordination Network 's coordinator, acknowledged that some men played a role in the electoral choices of their husbands, adding, however, that the only means through which the problem could be tackled was by empowering women by voting them into positions of influence.

"That's why, as NGO-GCN, we are fighting for women empowerment in the May19, 2009 elections. They can understand the needs of their fellow women better, and influence policies aimed at coming around such problems," said Chamgomo.

AEP/Richard Chirombo