With the deadline for declaring candidacy in November’s General Election having passed today at noon, the Electoral Commission has officially confirmed that a record-breaking 642 women are running for election to the Chamber of Deputies. That is up from 598 in the 2019 election.
Based on opinion polling and a review of all 80 constituencies, political scientists predict that women will likely win between 183 seats (45.75%) and 198 seats (49.5%) out of 400. If the predictions are to be believed, this would mark an increase from the 43% of seats won by women in the 2019 election.
This comes as welcome news for the government, which for the last decade has strived for gender parity in politics. In 2014, Minister of Equality and Social Affairs Martha Alomar unveiled the “#50by30” campaign, with the goal of creating 50/50 gender representation in politics by 2030.
Since the launch of the campaign, a number of measures have been rolled out to encourage more women to get involved in politics. As well as pushing more women to pursue higher education, provisions for maternity leave and flexible working for serving politicians have been strengthened.
Approached for comment by the Aredoan Observer, Minister Alomar strongly welcomed the news. “Allowing women to play a role in government has always been a core tenet of Aredoan feminism”, she stated, “and it has been strongly emphasized ever since 1905, when Aredoa hosted the International Women’s Congress on that very theme. Equal gender representation in politics is a sign of a healthy, inclusive democracy, and the government is committed to achieving that by 2030.”
The directly elected Chamber of Deputies is the last stumbling block in achieving 50/50 gender representation at the national level. Since taking office in 2014, Chief Minister Alejandro Lopez has maintained gender balance within his cabinet. From 2020, the Chamber of Regions, whose members are appointed by Regional Councils, has been made up of exactly 60 men and 60 women.
If women can indeed win upwards of 46% of seats in the upcoming election as predicted, electoral trends of the 21st century would suggest that the government will be able to achieve its goal of gender parity in the Chamber of Deputies by the time that 2030 comes around.
