Additional information about gender quotas

As part of the Electoral Code reform of 1996, the law providing for a 20 per cent quota for women on candidate lists for primaries of parties and movements was adopted. As the ranking order of the candidates is not regulated by law, and as the 20 per cent quota requirement only applies to candidate lists in parties’ internal elections and not the parties’ lists in the national or sub-national elections, the quota regulation has had a weak impact on the composition of the final lists. 

Paraguay has one of the lowest rates of political representation of women in Latin America. Although the electoral regulations establish a minimum gender quota of 20 percent for candidate tickets, which is low in itself, it is only enforceable in primary elections, not in the final list of candidates registered. (OAS 2023)