Key Benefits:
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DRAFT LAW NO. 224 /X
PARITY LAW: IT ESTABLISHES THAT THE LISTS FOR THE ASSEMBLY
OF THE REPUBLIC, FOR THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND FOR THE
LOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE COMPOSED SO AS TO ENSURE
MINIMUM REPRESENTATION OF 33% OF EACH OF THE SEXES
Exhibition of reasons
The foundation of democracy and the passage of the Constitution of 1976 created the
political and legal conditions for Portuguese citizens to obtain full
right to vote and to be elected to all political office.
The reforms that successively took place in Portugal after the day 25 of
April, they also allowed the legal inequalities and social injustices of which
the women were victims were partially attenuated. However, none of these
reforms influenced, decisively, the representation of women in the " world
political ".
In the Assembly of the Republic, the similarity of other organs of representation
policy, and notwithstanding the growing trend of feminisation of mandates
parliamentarians, is currently still verifying a phenomenon of under-representation
feminine.
In 1976, women accounted for about 5% percent of the total number of
Deputies, value that amounted to 6.8% in 1980, to 7.2% in 1983, which regressed to
6.4% in 1985 and which met again a positive evolution in the following years,
cipher in 7.6% in 1987, at 8.7% in 1991, at 12.2% in 1995, in 17.8% in
1999 and in 19.6% in 2002.
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The percentage of women elected in the February legislative elections
2005 corresponded to 21.3% (were elected 49 women in 230 seats-PS 35, PSD 6,
CFP 2, CDS-PP 1, BE 4 and PEV 1).
At present there are in functions 46 Deputes elected by the PS, 7 by the PSD, 4 by the
BE, 2 by the CFP, 1 by the PP and 1 by the ENP, by permaking a total of 61 women in the
Parliament, corresponding to a percentage of 26% of the global number of
Deputies.
There is this way a positive development in the rate of feminisation of the
parliamentary mandates, which in the period of 30 years (between 1976 and 2006) more than
quintupled, being untold the substantial contribution of the Socialist Party in this
matter-46 of the current 61 Deputients in exercise of functions, i.e. more than 75%
of the women parliamentarians, were elected by the Socialist Party,.
However, on a global level, and according to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which
is based on the information provided by the national parliaments of 187 countries,
Portugal lies in 42. th place, ex aequo with Pakistan, in the classification by
disincreasing order of percentage of women in the low or single chambers, with
21.3%.
With the presentation of this bill, also the expedient in the evasive practice
of putting women on the threshold of predictable eligibility is invitative through the
determination of the impossiblity of presentation, in the ordering of the lists for circles
plurinominals, from two candidates of the same sex placed consecutively,
ensuring by this medium also that letter and spirit of the law are in tune,
running for the same fund objective.
A background problem is still found in the quality of our
political system. The similarity of the path travelled by other political systems with
a degree of maturity superior to our own, the speed at which the political universe reflects
the transformations by which it has been past the Portuguese female condition is lower than the
speed checked in other social contexts, notably in the labour world and
college. This is still why a sharp gap is seen between the
composition of electoral universe and the composition of the elected representatives.
Pese although the favourable trajectory, Portugal continues today away from values
considered close to parity, presenting values equivalent to the percentages
of feminization verified in the Nordic countries in the 70. It is exactly in these
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intermediate stages of democratic maturity that is to equate the introduction of
instruments that guarantee effective participation and representation of genera.
The constitutional revision of 1997 reflects exactly that objective, to the
introduce amendments to the wording of Article 109 of the Constitution, passing on that
" the direct and active participation of men and women in political life constitutes
condition and fundamental instrument of consolidation of the democratic system, owing
the law promotes equality in the exercise of civil and political rights and the non
discrimination as a function of sex in access to public office ".
This constitutional precept must still be conjugated to the new (h) of the
article 9, which declares fundamental task of the State to promote equality between men
and women.
But, the new wording conferred on that Article 109 of the Constitution implies,
more than a simple repetition by legislative route of the principle of equality and of
access to political office, it mainly entails the promotion of measures aimed at a
effective equality. It is not a mere college, but a real duty to
legislate by law of the Assembly of the Republic, in respect of its absolute reserve and under the
form of organic law, because they are in cause measures that contend with subjects
electoral and political parties.
The useful sense of the constitutional standard consists in the imposition of the legislator
ordinary of the efective, by appropriate processes, of that equality of participation. It is,
for, in the framework of the deepening of the quality of democracy that the Constitution,
after the 1997 review, it goes on to demand a legal instrument that I have carried out
both from men and women in political life.
The present draft law is thus based on a new concept and has a
objective of concrete effect of women's rights: to do so is a noble form
of perfecting our democratic system by aiming at the realization of a
parity democracy.
The draft fixed law in 33.3% the minimum representation for both sexes
on the electoral lists, with equivalent reflexes in the elected and the elected, the
corresponds to a quantitative target on the path to parity.
It has generally been considered that a minimum of 30% of each sex could
constitute the "parity threshold", from which effective representation is possible
and effective of humanity as a whole and an expression of its masculine strands and
feminine.
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The underrepresentation of women corresponds to a participatory deficit,
likely to inforate Republican universalism and equality that substantiates it. The
parity is the only means of suppressing it, remaining faithful to the principle of equality.
Because by refusing the inequality that characterizes the current situation and which is
deeply unjust and undemocratic, she accepts and values the difference, which
recognizes the specificity of people.
A more significant participation of women in political life, being
essentially a requirement for justice and democracy, will also allow the
emergence of new looks on the reality and from different points of view, as
men and women have, of course, lived experiences and experiences that are historical and
culturally different.
Thus, in the terms of the Constitution and the applicable regimental standards, the
Lower-signed MPs present to the Assembly of the Republic the following project
of law:
Article 1.
(Lists of applications)
The lists of applications submitted for the Assembly of the Republic, for the
European Parliament and for local authorities are compriseof the promotion of
parity between men and women.
Article 2.
(Parity)
1-Understanding by parity, for the purposes of applying this Law, to
minimum representation of 33.3% of each of the sexes in the lists.
2-For fulfillment of the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the lists submitted
for plurinominal circles cannot contain more than two candidates of the same sex
placed, consecutively, in the ordering of the list.
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3-In the elections in which there are uninominal circles, the whole of candidates
herds in the ensemble of the partial circle and respective uninominal circles as well as the
totality of alternate candidates, have to ensure the minimum representation of each
of the sexes provided for in paragraph 1.
4-Exceptions of the provisions of paragraph 1 a composition of the lists for the organs
of the freguesias with 500 or fewer voters and for the organs of the municipalities with 5000
or fewer voters.
Article 3.
(Notification of the mandatary)
In the case of a list not observing the provisions of this Law, the mandatary is
notified, in the terms set out in the electoral law, applicable, to make its correction
within the time set in the same law, under penalty of rejection of the list in question.
Assembly of the Republic, March 8, 2006
The Deputies,