Legislation and Women's Participation in parliamentary and local elections

The constitutions, legislation and legal texts which govern political participation in the countries covered by the project support gender equality in all domains. This principle holds true for female voters as well as for female candidates and in elections on the local and national levels.

Yet, the practical enforcement of these laws is complex due to the many inconsistencies inherent in legal objectives. The lack of concurrence between legal rhetoric and local realities has been found to negatively affect women's representation in parliamentary and local elections. Furthermore, there is a wealth of political and social benefits that would result from women’s representation if a quota system requiring a certain percentage of female representatives in government, for instance, were in place. Yet, this system is not a component of most legislation in the Arab world. Additionally, the existence of some laws (ex. election and party laws) and the absence of others create gaps which make the exclusion of women from legal and governmental affairs possible.

• Algeria(Arabic)
• Yemen(Arabic)
• Egypt(Arabic)
• Lebanon(Arabic)
• Tunisia(Arabic)