El Salvador Imposes 30% Quota for Women in Local and Legislative Election Lists|News|teleSUR

El Salvador Imposes 30% Quota for Women in Local and Legislative Election Lists

The electoral commission decided to reform the law of political parties in order to correct the traditional sexist trend and include more women in the local and national governments.

The Commission of Electoral Reforms of the Legislative Assembly in El Salvador agreed to modify article 37 of the Law of Political Parties (LPP), defining a legal minimum of 30 percent women in the candidacies for municipal councils, national congress people and the Central American Parliament.

Congresswoman Jackeline Rivera (Farabundo Marti for National Liberation – FMLN, the left wing ruling party) said the law´s minimum quota of 30 percent applied to both congress people and alternate legislators, although the reform leaves the parties free to decide howto allocate the 30 percent on all their candidate lists.

According to Rivera, this would disadvantage women, and she said the FMLN would be careful not to.

Moreover, the electoral commission is looking into reforming article 165 of the Electoral Code, in order to impose the 30 percent quota of women in the lists that will shape the municipal councils from 2015.