Political parties exploit electoral law loophole on gender parity

April 2021: Many political parties presenting electoral lists to the national electoral authority claimed to have been unable to respect the new condition for parity between the numbers of male and female candidates (replacing the gender quota), exploiting a loophole in the new electoral law announced in March 2021.
The loophole, temporary article 317, allowed parties that could not fulfil the gender requirements to tell the electoral authority and proceed with submitting the list. This, as well as the use of an open-list system, may have contributed to the significant decline in women’s representation in the People’s National Assembly in the 2021 elections (from 120 in 2017 to 34 in 2021).

See Sabqpress, April 2021 and Washington Institute, September 2021.