Equity, understood as 50-50, remains the aspiration of the Ombudsman’s Office, facing the municipal elections next year. For that, they met with representatives of political parties in search of mechanisms that allow the inclusion of more women in local ballots.
According to the Defensoría, the parties have a real concern for “the existing national gap in political participation and effective election of women and its implications for governance, a situation that is exacerbated in local governments, and in particular in the of the mayor’s office.”
At the meeting, the criterion of the Supreme Court of Elections also came to light, leaving the horizontal parity in the uninominal positions of the mayoralty, syndicates and intendancies without application; and delegates in the parties choose the number of women and men who represent them in next year’s municipal elections.
After the meetings, the Ombudsman called on the political groups to analyze the possibilities of equalizing male and female participation in the next elections, as well as some recommendations:
-That if the parity is understood as the distribution of half of the positions, and given the number of positions in dispute in the next local electoral process, the parties must previously have clear information about which are the positions disputed.
-For the purposes of single-member mayoral positions, re-election is a challenge, for which one or more of the mechanisms discussed, such as historical parity, which is the consideration of the head of a woman in an election year and against other; the raffle, the negotiation and / or the reservation of positions of those who want to be re-elected.
-Given the new dynamics of party proliferation and eventual coalitions to face the electoral process of 2020, it is necessary to include parity in the negotiation of the process.
-The budget set aside for training of the TSE must be used for the training of women and generation of leadership, as a permanent process and not as a requirement for women’s candidacies.
This meeting was held within the framework of the group “En ruta a la Paridad”, where the National Women’s Institute (INAMU) and the Institute of Municipal Promotion and Advisory (IFAM) also participate.