None of the 15 election runners that submitted the documents to the Central Election Commission has a balanced representation of women and men on the lists of candidates for the November 30 parliamentary elections. The women on the lists of six parties represent 30%, while of two parties – over 40%. In the other cases the representation level is lower.
In a news conference at IPN, executive director of the Partnership for Development Center Alexei Buzu said that though the level of women’s representation on the lists of the parliamentary parties PCRM, PLDM, PDM and PL is of 32.7%, the presence of women on top places is below the representation average. Therefore, there is a risk that the level of women’s representation in the future Parliament will be lower than in the current legislature. “The analysis is a preliminary one and the election runners have time to modify the lists seven days before the election day. If the parties and their leaders show maturity and respect for gender equality, they still can change things. Compared with the situation of 2005, the figures as regards the women’s representation on the lists of candidates rose by only 1%,” he stated.
The women on the list of the Party “Democracy at Home” represent 49.1% of the candidates, while of the People’s Power Party – only 16.5%. The percentage of women on the top 20 positions varies between 20% and 25%.
The representatives of civil society draw attention to the fact that the level of women’s representation in Moldova’s Parliament is below the average of the EU member states, the OSCE member states and even the global average. During the last two parliamentary elections and two local elections, the number of women candidates didn’t change significantly. In 2005, the women represented 29% of the candidates, while in 2010 – 28.1%.
Andrei Brighidin, development, monitoring and assessment director at East Europe Foundation, said most of the election contenders ignored the principles of gender equality and nondiscrimination against women and this is regrettable. The causes for such a situation include the patriarchal approaches in society and the shortcomings related to party financing.
“We repeatedly proposed solutions for adopting the law on the reform of the financing system. This package of laws allows diminishing the donation cap and increasing the number of donors contributing money to parties. The women would have thus been able to finance parties. It’s well known that the parties in Moldova are mainly funded by men, who also set the conditions as to the way the lists of candidates must be compiled,” stated Andrei Brighidin.
Another cause is the lack of political will to adopt the bill that institutes a quota of women’s representation in the political process and a set of penalties in the final reading. If this bill is adopted, the parties will be obliged to have at least four women among the top ten candidates.
