TIRANA, May 18 – More than a dozen of women MPs from the ruling Socialist Party have proposed some amendments to the country’s Electoral Code to make women’s participation in the general elections MP candidate lists equal to that of men candidates. The initiative, which requires a qualified majority of 84 votes in the 140-seat Parliament, comes ahead of the 2017 general elections and targets increasing women’s quota in the candidate MP lists to 50 percent, up from a current 30 percent which parties failed to respect in the past two general elections even after penalties were set ahead of the June 2013 general elections. The legal initiative is also submitted at a time when the ad hoc electoral reform commission is working on some amendments to the Electoral Code to comply with OSCE/ODIHR recommendations. In its final report, the OSCE/ODIHR mission said the 2013 general elections were competitive and characterized by genuine respect for fundamental rights, “but more needs to be done to enhance public confidence in the electoral process.”
“Consideration should be given to further promote women candidates. The existing provision allowing the Central Election Commission to reorder candidate lists could be enforced as well as considering other possible sanctions for non-compliance. The Electoral Code could also be amended to require more balanced and consistent positioning of women candidates throughout party lists,” said the OSCE/ODIHR report.
The 30 percent gender quota for women’s participation in the MP candidate lists was set in the 2008 Electoral Code changes but resulted in only 23 women MPs or 16 percent of the 140 seat Parliament in the 2009 elections.
Back in 2013, the Central Election Commission imposed fines worth 22 million lek (€157,000) on parties for failing to respect the 30 percent gender quota. The 2013 general election produced only 19 women MPs but their presence has currently increased to 29 or 21 percent after cabinet ministers relinquished their MP mandates.
The women MPs say the application of the 50-50 gender quota in the latest 2015 local elections positively influenced on increasing women’s presence in politics.
“In Albania, despite efforts made by political forces and even the civil society, politics remains a field with obvious gender gaps,” says the document accompanying the draft law, signed by 13 women MPs, among whom Valentina Leskaj, a Socialist Party MP and deputy Parliament Speaker.
The proposed amendments allow the Central Election Commission, the body handling elections, to turn down MP lists in case the 50 percent quota has not been met by parties and one in every two consecutive names in the multi-name lists is not a woman.
Since the 2008 constitutional changes, Albania has been electing its 140 MPs under a regional proportional representation system with closed candidate lists in 12 constituencies that correspond to the administrative regions of Albania. The constituencies are of different sizes, with the number of mandates ranging from a mere 4 in northeastern Kukà«s to 32 in capital Tirana, based on the number of citizens registered in each constituency. The closed list system has also sparked concerns about internal democracy in Albanian political parties as it is often the party leaders and a close group who decide on the MPs, with the first names on the list holding an advantage to be elected.
