The ProGen 2009 Alliance, a coalition of nogovernemnatl organizations pleading for gender equality, has examined the lists of candidates running in the 2009 legislative elections and established that the women make up less than the 30-40% stipulated in the national legislation and international conventions signed by Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. “Though the legislative and normative framework and international agreements contain explicit stipulations about the equal participation of men and women in political and public decision making, the parties unfortunately made few steps in favor of women as the international organizations recommend,” the executive director of the Partnership for Development Center Daniela Terzi-Barbarosie told a news conference held at Info-Prim Neo on March 12. She said that 50% of the population would like a parliament where the women will have parity with men and the fact that the political parties ignored this aspect when compiling the lists is a blow to half of the population. According to a study carried out by the ProGen Alliance, only several parties observed the legislation and international commitments when drawing up the lists. Though the percentage of women on the lists has increased constantly from the 1998 elections (15.7%) until the 2005 polls (29%), this year the lists of the 15 parties and six independents include 29.5% of women, slightly over the 2005 level. According to Vasile Cantarji, sociologist at the Centre of Sociological Investigations and Marketing CBS-AXA, this year does not see the same growth rate as the previous years. This means that less attention is paid to gender equality. The number of women candidates on the electoral lists varies from 11.7% on the lists of the Centrist Union of Moldova to 46.4% on the lists of the “Green Alliance” Ecologist Party. “We ascertained that the parties considered to have great chances of passing the election threshold have fewer women on the electoral lists than the parties with slighter chances. But the fact that some of the lists contain a large number of women shows that the women want to go into politics,” the head of the Political Women’s Club 50/50 Ecaterina Mardarovici said. The study also shows that the women dominate the second half of the list, while the men the first half. The ProGen 2009 Alliance was founded in October 2008 by the following NGOs: the Partnership for Development Center, the Political Women’s Club 50/50, Gender-Centru, the Forum of Women’s Organizations and the Club for Equal Chances “In Doi”. It now has over 20 members.