E. On the impact of the proposed reform on women's representation

The submitted draft does not take into consideration provisions of ensuring women’s representation under the proposed electoral system. The number of women MPs in the Moldovan Parliament is very low. In the parliamentary elections of 2010, only 19 women were elected out of the 101 mandates.[1] Until now, Moldova has not followed the recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to increase women’s representation in politics.[2] The new electoral proposal does not improve gender equality, and could further limit women’s representation in parliament. As the European Parliament stated more than fifteen years ago, the countries with majority or plurality electoral systems in one-member constituencies have the lowest level of female political representation. In single-member constituencies, political forces often prefer male candidates because, in such a way, they expect better electoral results than when selecting women.[3]

[1] Morozova, Galina, Underrepresentation of women in the parliament of the Republic of Moldova. A gender perspective on democratic development in the country. Lund University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Sciences, 2011, http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=2155527&fileOId=2155528

[2] PACE, resolution 1706(2010), available at: http://www.assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta10/ERES1706.htm; see also Recommendation 1899(2010), available at: http://assembly.coe.int/Mainf.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta10/EREC1899.htm. See also the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission final report in both 2011 local elections and 2010 parliamentary elections, which also recommended to promote women’s participation.

[3] Differential impact of electoral systems on female political representation, Directorate-General for Research, Working document, Women’s rights Series, W-10, Electoral Systems, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/workingpapers/femm/w10/2_en.htm