The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is, starting Friday, releasing a full list of candidates that will stand in the 2023 elections.
Here are a few quick numbers to chew over from ZEC’s report.
92: This is the number of council seats that Zanu-PF has won uncontested. No opponents fielded candidates in these seats. This is up from 51 in 2018 for the ward elections. There are over 4800 candidates competing in the 1878 wards that are contested. This is lower than 6796 candidates in 2018.
637: This is the total number of candidates competing for the 210 seats in the National Assembly. In 2018, there were 1648 candidates.
19: The number of political parties taking part in this election. This is down from 55 parties in 2018. There are just 10 independent candidates in the 210 seats
Women participation: There are only 70 female candidates out of 637, which is 11%. In 2018, there were 237 out of 1648 candidates for National Assembly elections, or 14.4%. Mashonaland Central has a single female candidate out of the 40 contestants.
Bulawayo has 16 female candidates and 41 men, Harare (14 women, 96 men) Matabeleland South (2 women, 34 men), Manicaland (4 women, 67 men), Mash East (6 women, 54 men), Mash West (8 women, 55 men), Masvingo (4 women, 59 men), Mat North (8 women, 51 men), and Midlands (7 women, 71 men)
In 2018, four out of the 23 presidential candidates were female. This time? Zero.
Source BYO24
