Ground-breaking reforms approved by the Jalisco legislature last year mean that next July’s elections in the state will contain an equal number of candidates of both sexes.
The new “paridad de género” (gender equality) clause in the State Electoral Law obliges political parties postulating candidates for the 2018 elections for federal and state legislators, senators, and municipal mayors and councils to register a 50-50 male/female split on their slates.
Various countries have enacted electoral gender quota legislation in recent years, but Mexico has resisted such change, even though women’s representation in politics is one of the lowest on the continent.
Jalisco is the first Mexican state to approve a 50-50 gender quota rule for political parties.
“This serves as an example to the rest of the country that it is not only desirable but necessary, to give men and women equal representation in the political process,” Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval said after the State Electoral Institute (IEPC) rubber-stamped the law last week.
All the political parties registered in Jalisco have promised to respect the regulation and present lists of candidates with the correct gender balance.
Héctor Pizano Ramos, state president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), said while his party welcomed the reforms as a positive democratic move, he hoped that gender parity in elections in the “not too distant future” could be a “natural occurrence” and not imposed.
Several European countries have managed to achieve a balance between male and female candidates without recurring to mandatory quotas. In the recent French legislative elections, half the candidates of President Emmanuel Macron’s party were women.
The National Action Party (PAN) has embraced the reform and encouraged women to enter the political arena. “The absence of women in political life has brought huge problems for Jalisco and Mexico,” said Annia Alicia García, PAN’s secretary for the promotion of women in politics. She said she has visited various municipal committees in the state in a bid to change the mindset of male party members who say “there are no women” to fill the quotas.
Under the new regulations the female representation must be as follows: one of the two candidates for senator, ten of the 20 candidates for the federal representatives (Camara de Diputados) and the state legislature (Congreso del Estado), 63 of the 125 candidates for presidentes municipales (mayors) and 613 of the 1,226 candidates for city councilors.
The correct gender balance must be observed both for directly elected candidates, as well as those seeking office via the proportional representation system.
Parties that present a full slate of candidates will have a total of 770 women running for office next year in Jalisco.
There are currently eight parties registered to participate in elections in the state.