One hundred and forty-five women were elected as MPs in the elections for the lower house of parliament out of 462 seats, accounting for nearly 31.4 per cent of parliamentarians. In the outgoing parliament, women MPs only accounted for less than eight per cent, putting Algeria joint 120th with Ukraine in the IPU world ranking of women’s political participation.
The outcome of these latest elections means Algeria will now leap-frog into the top 25 countries.
In the IPU’s annual analysis of women’s political participation released in early March this year, the Arab region had the lowest regional average in the world at 10.7 per cent. Until now, it had also been the only part of the world without a single parliament hosting 30 per cent or more women MPs.
The large increase in the number of women now in the Algerian parliament has partly been the result of a new law on women’s political participation. In a proportional representation system, it set quotas for women candidates on political party lists depending on the size of a constituency.
However, the law didn’t stipulate where on the list women should appear, which significantly reduces the potential effectiveness of such a measure. The election of 145 women meant that in this instance, various political parties played a significant role by putting women relatively high up on their candidate lists.
Other press releases