Additional information about gender quotas

In March 2007 the Equality Law (Ley de Igualdad) modified the electoral law and introduced the ‘principle of balanced presence’ of female and male candidates. Party electoral lists are required to have a minimum of 40 per cent and a maximum of 60 per cent of either sex among their candidates in elections to the Lower House (Congress of Deputies). The law was first applied in the general elections of March 2008. The Electoral Law (as amended in 2007) also applies to regional and local elections. It was first applied in the local and regional elections of May 2007. The provisions do not apply to villages with less than 5,000 inhabitants. By 2011 only villages with less than 3,000 inhabitants will not be obliged to comply with the Equality Law. Quota requirements are also included in regional laws. By March 2007 several Autonomous Communities—including the Balearic Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia and the Basque Country—had adopted quotas in regional elections. In these elections, women have to represent at least 50 per cent of any party’s electoral list. In the first elections in which the quota was to be enforced, some provincial electoral authorities failed to reject lists that did not comply with the rules. Some parties challenged those lists before administrative courts and lists failing to comply with gender-based parity were forced to be amended or be invalidated.

The Equality Law passed in the Basque Country in 2005 obliges the government to incorporate a 40 per cent quota for either sex in the composition of the cabinet. It also states that in party electoral lists women must constitute at least 50 per cent of all candidates.