A Labour activist who has waited almost 16 months for her complaint of sexual harassment against an MP to be resolved has called on the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, to take charge of more abuse complaints.

Ava Etemadzadeh, who says she was harassed by the now-suspended Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins, said she and other anonymous complainants felt the disciplinary process was not fit for purpose.

In a letter to the deputy leader, shared with the Guardian, she said Watson should take charge of monitoring the process as he has pledged to do with complaints about antisemitism and bullying.

Watson has said he will take personal charge of antisemitism and bullying complaints made by MPs to bring them to the attention of the Labour leadership, telling colleagues that he and his team would now be “logging and monitoring all complaints” so he could raise them himself with the leadership and with the national executive committee of the party.

“I, like many survivors of sexual harassment and assault, would like you to take the same measures to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct within the Labour party,” Etemadzadeh wrote to Watson.

Etemadzadeh, who first made her complaint about Hopkins in November 2017, is scheduled to have it heard by the party’s highest disciplinary body in late April but said she had lost faith in the process.

She has previously accused Hopkins of sending her a text saying young men would be “lucky to have you as a girlfriend and a lover” and has accused him of rubbing his crotch against her during an embrace at an event in 2014. Hopkins has said he “absolutely and categorically” denies any inappropriate conduct.

Etemadzadeh said the handling of her case “shares many of the same flaws as [the] handling of allegations of antisemitism” and particularly criticised the makeup of the elected disciplinary body, the national constitutional committee, which she said was elected according to “factional politics”.

Etemadzadeh said she had found herself in a similar position to those who had made complaints about antisemitism. “It is complainants, rather than perpetrators, who are accused of exercising a malign power and bringing the party into disrepute,” she said.

She told the Guardian that she had spoken to others pursuing complaints through the party’s internal processes, some of whom said confidential matters had been leaked to the media, or that there had been a lack of communication with victims and extensive delays to hearing dates, which had led some to give up on the process.

She wrote to Watson: “Cost has been cited in correspondence as a limit on the safeguarding adjustments possible and the frequency with which hearings can be held, which is difficult for complainants to stomach as we read headlines about the cost of events like [the party’s music festival] Labour Live.”

Etemadzadeh also asked Watson to advocate for the release of a June 2018 report by Karon Monaghan QC on reforming the party’s complaints procedure, which she said she had contributed to but had not been allowed to read. “I urge you to ensure that this report is published in as full a manner as possible, within the bounds of interviewee confidentiality,” she said.

A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour party takes all complaints of sexual harassment extremely seriously, which are fully investigated and any appropriate disciplinary action taken in line with party rules and procedures.

“We are determined to challenge and overturn sexual harassment and misogyny within politics and across society as a whole.”