Quotation draft bill should ensure a real growth of women's representation

As it is known, in several days, the Parliament of Georgia will review the legislative initiative of 37,455 voters, which will obligate political parties and blocs to present every second candidate of different gender in party lists at parliamentary and local self-government elections. It has been reported that the ruling party is considering a version of the draft bill under which every third candidate in proportional lists should be of different sex and every sixth among majoritarians. Provided that the above version of the bill is adopted, the increase of the representation of women in the Parliament will only be guaranteed by 15% and up to 23% in case of victory of female candidates in majoritarian districts.

We would like to emphasize that amending the bill in the above manner cannot provide a substantial growth of women's representation. The quotation of the majoritarian system does not guarantee that women nominated as candidates may enter the legislative body. Consequently, it is not an effective instrument to ensure a gender balanced representation. In case of quotation in the majoritarian system, parties may formally meet the requirement of nominating female candidates, but present women in “less promising” districts where the candidates will have fewer chances of obtaining a mandate. Providing gender-balanced representation in a single-mandate election district is virtually impossible, since only one candidate can be nominated here. Therefore, there is no guarantee that female candidates will be elected in the legislative body. Also, increasing women's representation by only one sixth cannot be reasonable. The latter is a message against equality.    

The initiative submitted with widespread support of voters envisages equal representation of women and men in the proportional system, which, pursuant to the current mixed system, is the only real way to increase the number of women in the Parliament, but still by 25% of representation.

It is not accidental that the initiative supported by more than 37 thousand voters implies nominating every second candidate of different gender only in the proportional list. The organizations within the women's political group initially supported the transition to the proportional system as the majoritarian system is less favourable for female representation. The analysis of international experience and various electoral systems around the world shows that the gender quota is mostly present in the proportional system. In addition, research has repeatedly proved that in the countries with only proportional system, women's representation is twice higher than in the countries where only the majoritarian system operates. In the mixed system the data is halved.   

We call upon the Parliament to support the legislative initiative on gender quotas which the voters submitted to the Parliament, as the proposed alternative quotation will be formalized and cannot act as an effective and substantial mechanism for the growth of women's representation.  

Task Force on Women's Political Participation

The Task Force on “Women's Political Participation" was established in Georgia in February 2014, and since then, has advocated various issues in order to increase women's political participation. The Task Force developed a legislative initiative of mandatory gender quota, which, if adopted, would have ensured at least 25 percent representations of women in the Parliament of 2016".