Special Seat Member of Parliament (CCM), Neema Lugangira has called for improvements to political parties and elections to clearly specify the selection of candidates within political parties in various leadership positions.

She said this on April 25, 2023 while contributing to the estimates of revenue and expenditures of the Ministry of Constitution and Legal Affairs for the year 2023/2024.

“I ask the government, when it brings improvements to parliament, to clearly state how the selection of candidates within political parties will be done through the political parties law and election law,” she said. She said it would be very desirable if the law was brought to parliament before next year’s local government elections.

She said the reason for proposing this is the presence of few female leaders in local government in the country.

Lugangira specified that female leaders who are village chairpersons are 2.1 percent, local government chairpersons are 12.8 percent, and 6.7 percent of hamlet chairpersons are women.

She said there is a need to increase that number, and therefore, those laws must come before the government candidate selection process.

Furthermore, Lugangira wanted civil society organizations, especially those on the periphery, to be properly involved in providing education and contributions on how to improve the constitution.