2021 Summary of local elections. Representation of women in councils has significantly increased.

The results of last year’s local elections show that the representation of women in the councils of enlarged communities has increased significantly. It should be reminded that last year on October 17, November 14, December 5, proportional local elections were held in 45 enlarged communities. At the same time, majoritarian elections were held in 7 communities populated by national minorities.

A total of 66 political forces participated in all the elections by proportional system, in the lists of which 5348 candidates were included, 1798 of them or 34% were women.

Women had the largest participation in the lists of political forces nominated in the October 17 elections – 36%, in the November 14 elections women candidates were 33.4%, in the December 5 elections – 33.2%.

As a result of the proportional local elections 2021, 1027 members of the Council of Elders were elected, of which 319 or 31.06% are women.

In particular, 43 out of 120 elected members of the Council of Elders as a result of the October 17 elections are women (35.8%), 24 out of 73 members elected on November 14 are women (32.8%), 253 out of 813 council members elected as a result of the December 5 elections are women (31%).

It should be noted that before the elections, 280 out of 3205 members of the Council of Elders were women (8.7%) in the communities included in 45 enlarged clusters. In other words, the representation of women in these communities has increased at least 3.5 times, from 8.7% to 31%.

In particular, in the 6 communities that participated in the October 17 elections, 11 out of 91 council members were women (12%), on November 14 in 3 communities there were no women among the 45 council members, and in the December 5 elections 269 out of 3064 council members were united in 36 communities were women (8.8%).

As for the representation of women among community leaders, in only 4 out of 66 party lists running in the 2021 local elections, women topped the list. As a result of the elections, only two women were elected mayors, and these women headed their communities before the elections, ie they were re-elected.

Majoritarian elections

On October 17, November 14, and December 5, the Council of Elders held elections in the communities inhabited by seven national minorities: Arjut, Metsadzor, Shamiram, Lermontovo, Fioletova, Lori, Ferik, and Arzni, Kotayk, Armavir.

In total, 64 candidates participated in the elections of the Council of Elders, 13 of which or about 20% were women. Forty-six of the nominees were elected, five of them women, which is 12.5%, which is almost half of the quota proportional results.

For comparison, the previously mentioned 7 communities had a total of 40 members of the Council of Elders, of which 7 or 17.5% were women.

Mayoral elections were held in 5 communities inhabited by national minorities: in the villages of Arut, Metsadzor, Shamiram, Lori Lermontovo, Fioletova in the Aragatsotn region.

Comparing the results of the proportional-majoritarian elections hold in 2021 show that the gender quota enshrined in the RA Electoral Code, which was applied in the local elections, has greatly contributed to the increase of the percentage of women in the Council of Elders. In the case of majoritarian elections, the quota did not work, resulting in some setbacks instead of progress.

As for the number of community leaders, this issue is not regulated by a quota, it largely depends on the political forces, the electoral lists of which are led by women in rare cases. Women’s nominations for mayor are just as rare in a majoritarian system.

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