Additional information about gender quotas

In 2018, a new quota law (Loi n° 219/AN/18/7ème L) was adopted, amending law (No. 192) that provided the requirement for party lists to include at least 10 % of either sex and the rule of at  least 10 % of either sex in senior public positions. The 2018 law provides that at least 25 % of the members of the National Assembly should be women, and also provides that political parties should have at least 25 % of either sex on their candidate lists. The new law does not provide any placement rules.

Since the 2012 amendments to the electoral law, political parties have presented closed candidate lists in multi-member constituencies. The party that receives the majority of votes cast gains 80 per cent of the seats in the National Assembly. The remaining 20 per cent of the seats are allocated to parties that obtained at least 10 per cent of the votes cast. If no party receives more than 10 per cent of the votes cast, the remaining 20 per cent of the parliamentary seats are allocated to the first party.

The 2002 quota law (192) was implemented for the first time during the legislative elections held in January 2003. Although the opposition parties initially displayed a negative attitude towards women’s inclusion in the candidate lists, they eventually complied with the gender quota requirements, out of fear that their lists would be rejected by the electoral authorities (Youssouf 2007:30). The application of the gender quota provision resulted in the election of seven women (10.8% of the total number of seats) for the first time in the history of Djibouti.