A number of nongovernmental organizations will picket the Government and Parliament Buildings and will demand adopting the law on the minimum quota of women’s representation in elections. In a news conference at IPN, representatives of civil society expressed their concern about the non-ensuring of women’s participation and balanced representation in the decision-making process.
Ecaterina Mardarovici, executive director of the Women’s Political Club 50/50, said that representatives of civil society will weekly picket the Buildings of the Government and Parliament on the days they hold meetings. The pickets will close on February 28, when 101 women and men will come together at the National Opera House and will go to the Parliament Building, where they will hand over their demands to the MPs. “We want to sensitize the country’s administration to the necessity of adopting this law as it will contribute to ensuring equal chances for women and men in elections and in decision making,” she stated.
Executive director of the Partnership for Development Center Alexei Buzu said there are three bills that set electoral gender quotas. One is proposed by a group of Liberal-Democratic MPs. Another one was drafted by the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family, while the third was submitted by the Central Election Commission. “Even if the legislative proposals were formulated with the broad participation of civil society and were based on studies and analyses, they weren’t passed yet,” he said.
Andrei Brighidin, development, monitoring and assessment director at East Europe Foundation, said that judging by the experience of EU member states, the introduction of a minimum quota of 40% in Moldova would ensure the efficient representation of women
Currently, the rate of women’s representation in Parliament is 18.8%, under the international average of 20%.
