Additional information about gender quotas

Prior to the adoption of the quota regulation, El Salvador was a country with a relatively high percentage of women elected, due to the adoption of voluntary party quotas and a relatively high degree of compliance by parties with these rules. With the 2013 amendment to the Law on Political Parties, which will be applied for the 2015 elections, all political parties are required to include at least 30 per cent women on their candidate lists for elections at the national and sub-national level. However, political parties are still free to decide on the placement of women on the lists, as the law does not provide any rule for the ranking order of candidates.

The Law on Political Parties (Article 37) also states that political parties must include at least 30 per cent women on their lists of candidates for the elections for the Central American Parliament.