How has the representation of women in local self-government changed after the December 5 elections? / Infographic

As a result of the local elections held on December 5, in most of the communities, the councils of elders convened the first sessions and elected mayors. In several large communities, lawsuits have been filed over voting results, delaying the election of mayors. There are also criminal prosecutions against the candidates who received the most votes, due to which the elections of community leaders did not take place.

At the moment, it is clear that as a result of the local elections, two enlarged communities will be headed by women: Dianna Gasparyan will continue to lead in Vagharshapat, and Jemma Harutyunyan in Amasia. It should be reminded that in the last elections only three of the voter lists of political forces were headed by women.

WomenNet.am, based on the decisions of the Territorial Electoral Commissions to register the elected members of the Council of Elders, tried to find out how the representation of women in the Council of Elders changed as a result of the December 5 proportional elections in 36 enlarged communities of 9 regions of Armenia.

Overall, as a result of the December 5 proportional elections, the number of women in the councils of these communities increased significantly to 31%, while before the enlargement, the representation of women in the 441 communities united in 36 clusters was only 8.8%.

It should be noted that due to the gender quota stipulated in the Electoral Code, this progress was not registered in all communities, as an average of 33.2% of women candidates were included in the voter lists of 44 political forces participating in the elections. For example, in Aparan there is no woman in the Council of Elders, and in some communities the representation of women is below the quota of 30%, even below the legal threshold of 25%. The main reasons were self-withdrawal and resignation.

At the same time, there are communities where the representation of women is 40% or higher. Women have the highest representation in the council of elders of Araks community of Armavir region – 43%  in the councils of Pambak of Lori region, 40% in the councils of Vayk communities of Vayots Dzor region, followed by Vanadzor with 39%, Khoy-Baghramyan communities with 38%.

The representation of women in the councils of the majority of communities is 33%, such as in Hrazdan, Vardenis, Talin, Ararat, Masis, Vagharshapat, Armavir, Jermuk, etc.

As a result of the December 5 local elections, women in three communities make up more than 40% of the council members. 43% in Araks, 40% in Pambak and Vayk.