Additional information about gender quotas

A debate on the introduction of quotas for women took place in Timor-Leste during the period of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) between October 1999 and April 2001 (Ballington and Dahlerup 2006: 251–52). During this period, Rede Feto Timor Leste (a network of 16 women’s organizations) proposed that a mandatory quota be stipulated in the electoral regulation, relying on the Beijing Platform of Action and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). At least 30 per cent of women candidates were to be proposed in the political party lists and placed in winnable positions, with every third candidate listed from the top being a woman. However, in 2001 the National Council rejected quotas. Article 12. 3 of the electoral law was eventually adopted in 2006, providing that one out of every four candidates on electoral lists must be a woman. This quota was revised in 2011 to provide for an improved rule that includes a woman in every three candidates on candidate lists.

Moreover, a new law for Municipality Elections was issued in 2021 providing that lists of candidates, effective and substitutes, for municipal deputies must include, at least, one woman for each group of three candidates, under penalty of rejection.