Daniel Ioannisyan, the Secretary of the Committee on the Amendments to the Electoral Code adjunct to the Prime Minister, met with members of NGOs specialized in women issues for discussing the regulations of the Electoral Code connected with the quota of female participation and other issues. Upon the present law, each 4th in the electoral list should be a woman and it is provided that if the female MP renounces her mandate, not the next person in number takes her place, but the next female candidate. Nevertheless, although it is provided that 20% of the Parliament should be female, factually it is 18% today, which is a shameful indicator: “The Committee has already said that we refuse any ranking system, its manifestations of any kind. A closed proportional list will be in place and here quotas start functioning entirely by default. It is going to be guaranteed that each 4th person in the list is female and the minimum of 20% is female in the Parliament. We already have this progress. Different international institutions adopt different approaches, giving advices and suggestions to women connected with quotas. The Council of Europe proposes 40% of female participation. We saw that not all countries forming their parliament under a proportional election system have quotas for women, the average indicator is 32%. It is in a few countries that quotas not only for the list but also for the indicator of candidates having passed to the parliament are envisaged. It is provided in the Republic of Armenia.”
The Government proposes 25% female participation instead of 20, so that each 3rd is a woman in the list. This proposal did not satisfy the members of organizations specified in women rights. They proposed quota increase to the minimum of 40/60.
“ProMedia Gender” NGO president, Tamara Hovnatanyan said that 30-70% proportion is already an old stage: “We did not know previously that open lists would be in place. Back then they said that they could not provide 30% female participation, but we saw that there were parties in the lists which nominated 30% plus female candidates.”
She said that they saw there were no open lists during the elections of local self-government bodies, they were able to provide at least 25% of female participation, quota worked.
Daniel Ioannisyan responded: “It is evident that the ranking system is evil, it is evil by all its manifestations and it should not exist.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
