Additional information about gender quotas

The electoral threshold for the 92 multi-member constituencies is 6 per cent, while for the one national constituency the threshold is 3 per cent. In 2002 the political parties signed a charter that reserved 30 seats for women in the lower house, elected through a special nation-wide list. The 2007 election followed the same rules. Following the democratic uprising in 2011, the quota regulation was codified in the new electoral law for the 2011 elections, and the number of reserved seats for women was extended to 60 seats, while 30 seats were reserved for young men under the age of 40. In the 2011 elections, only 7 women were elected to a constituency seat, a slight increase from 4 in 2007 and 5 in 2002, when the reserved seats were first introduced. In 2016, the 30 seats previosly reserved for young men opened up to include both men and women under the age of 40. 

At the sub-national level, the 2008 reform introduced a 12 per cent quota for the communal elections through the creation of ‘additional electoral constituencies’ in urban and rural communities and districts (Articles 204 (1) and (2) of the electoral code), as well as the creation of a ‘support fund for the promotion of women representativeness’ (Article 288). Although not explicitly mentioned in the electoral law, there was a national consensus that these seats would be reserved for women. As a result of this reform, women’s local representation increased from 0.6 per cent to 12.3 per cent in the 2009 local government elections. In the next local elections, the 2011 law on the election of council members of local authorities, reserving seats for women in regional, communal and district councils, will be applied.