Nongovernmental organizations and civic activists call on political parties to respect and apply the gender representation quota of minimum 40% when nominating candidates for the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019, both in the national constituency and in single-member constituencies.
In a news conference at IPN, signatories of the call reminded that in 2016, by the votes of 86 MPs, the political class undertook to respect the principle of gender equality on the decision-making process by adopting the minimum gender representation quota of 40%. Regrettably, the effect of the quota in 2017 was reduced together with the promulgation of the law on the replacement of the proportional representation system with the mixed electoral system. The civic activists ascertained that despite the constant efforts made to promote gender equality in politics, the women now hold fewer than one fifths of the seats of MP. The underrepresentation of women is directly influenced by the decisions taken by political parties when compiling the lists of candidates.
Galina Precup, vice director of the National Women’s Studies and Information Center “Partnership for Development”, said a study carried out by the organization shows the women were put on less eligible places on the lists of candidates in all the elections held during the past ten years. In the previous elections, in case of most of the parties, only 20% of the first 20 candidates on the list were women. The TV channels promote more the activities of men than of women and the women are less visible.
Starting with 2019, the political parties that will respect the quota of at least 40% of female candidates in single-member constituencies will benefit from a rise in budget support equal to at least 10% of the sum allocated for a particular budgetary year to a party and a multiplication coefficient for each female candidate elected in single-member constituencies, in accordance with the legislation on political parties and the procedures set down by the Central Election Commission. Valeriu Pașa, of the WatchDog.MD community, said the measures to stimulate the participation of women in elections are not sufficient when there is no clear political will to promote women.
Lawyer Dumitrul Sliusarenko said a study of hate speech conducted by “Promo-LEX” Association showed the women are the second group that is most often targeted by hate speech in the public sphere after the LGBT community. “It is much harder for a woman to serve in politics than for a man owing to the prejudices and stereotypes promoted publicly. Unlike the men, the woman should not only prove she is a professional, but should also pass a multitude of tests, such as the family test, to show she is a good housewife and mother and can give birth to children. These things do not apply to men,” stated the lawyer.
The signatories of the call request the political parties to put women on eligible places when compiling the lists of candidates, to respect the rights of each candidate running in elections, to avoid sexist speech and speech that incites hatred and violence and to ensure a transparent electoral process based on meritocracy as this will contribute to the involvement of more women in the electoral process and to the balancing of gender representation in Moldova’s Parliament.
Among the signatories of the call that include 22 organizations and ten civic activists are: “Partnership for Development” Center, “Memoria” Center, Gender Centru, “Promo-LEX”, Women’s Political Club 50/50, International Center “La Strada”, Women’s Law Center, Center for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Institute for Public Policy and others. The list remains open for signing.
