Gertrude Nya Mkandawire is a

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

an politician, she was a member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

in 2004 for the

People's Transformation Party The People's Transformation Party (PETRA) is a political party in Malawi. In the general elections on 20 May 2004, the party was part of the Mgwirizano Coalition, that won 27 out of 194 seats. PETRA was part of the Tonse Alliance to support Laza ...

. She was then in the

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a centre to centre-left Taiwanese nationalist political party in Taiwan. As the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition, one of the two main political camps in Taiwan, the DPP is currently the ...

and she withdrew in the 2008 election's primaries because of the abuse and demands for bribes from party members. She stood as an independent (and unsuccessful) candidate in that constituency.

Life

Mkandawire was the People's Transformation Party's candidate for the

Mzimba Solora Constituency Mzimba Solora Constituency is a constituency for the National Assembly of Malawi, located in the Mzimba District of Malawi's Northern Region. It is one of 12 constituencies in Mzimba District. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past ...

in the 2004 elections. She was one of thirteen candidates and she was elected and joined Malawi's

. There were about 30,000 votes and she took over a quarter of them. She was a candidate in the 2009 elections again in the Mzimba Solora Constituency. There were reports of insults and stone throwing against women candidates in the elections. Mkandawire was reported to have withdrawn from the primary elections. She complained that insulting songs were sung and she was jostled by voters and her posters were destroyed. She noted that other candidates said that they were "sharing the wealth" as they handed out blankets, food and cash to potential voters. She was standing as a DPP candidate and she said that the party's committee members were among those expecting her to pay them for their support. The party had demanded, before she stood, that in the event of standing down she would support the replacement DPP candidate. She argued that this was an assurance that would apply only in a fair election. She stood as an independent but the electorate did not vote for her in sufficient numbers. Patrick Akimu Mwanza was the successful candidate and he had over ten times her number of votes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mkandawire, Gertrude Nya Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Democratic Progressive Party (Malawi) politicians People from Mzimba District Members of the National Assembly (Malawi) Malawian women in politics