Understanding Bill 7’s Women’s Seats
As part of the ongoing national conversation on Bill 7, I took a moment to visualize what the proposed 20 reserved seats for women could look like if allocated proportionally based on the 2021 presidential election results.
The proportional distribution would look something like this:
🔸 UPND – 12 seats
🔸 PF – 8 seats
🔸 Others – below the threshold for a full seat
This isn’t about politics as usual. It’s about strengthening Zambia’s governance architecture and ensuring that women are fully represented at the table of national decision-making.
Bill 7 creates a more predictable, inclusive system that encourages parties to field strong female leaders and rewards national support with proportional representation. In corporate speak, this is what we call optimising the talent pipeline.
As a country, we are stronger when all voices are heard. And when women rise, the Republic rises with them.
I prepared the simple graphic below to help illustrate what “proportionality” means in practice. Sometimes, a picture just closes the meeting quicker than a thousand memos.
Rev. Dr. Elias Munshya
Zambia’s Ambassador to Angola
Bill 7 – Illegitimate. Illegal. Dead
We are a Constitutional Democracy…Not a Mafia Democracy.
Pablo Escobar of the Medellin Cartel
built Schools, supported Women, Youth, Football Teams and Charity works. But he was a Criminal.
In a Constitutional Democracy, we need to do things following the Provisions of the law..Where will the Abuse of the Constitution end?
Illegitimate means cannot justify a legitimate end.