Gender equality, youth representation

As already stated in the interim Opinion, gender-balanced representation (gender parity) in elected bodies appears more and more as an international standard,11 while in the last Parliament of Haiti there were only 4 women out of 149 MPs. During the meetings in Washington DC, the Haitian representatives expressed their readiness to adopt rules encouraging such parity, which will be the easiest at local level where the vote takes place in multi-member constituencies. The Commission recalls that gender balanced representation may be pursued by various means, including through gender quotas and financial incentives or sanctions. For elections by list systems, gender quotas imply the obligation to ensure a composition of the candidates’ lists alternating men and women; for elections in single-member constituencies, the obligation to ensure a balanced percentage of women and men amongst candidates of the same party. It should be noted the balanced representation of genders may be made more or less easy by the choice of the electoral system: one-member constituencies are not favourable to gender-balance, contrary to proportional systems with high district magnitude and electoral thresholds.