At elections in Georgia party lists will have women's quotas

At the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Georgia, the leading political parties will provide for quotas for women, which were approved legislatively on recommendation of the Venice Commission.

The above Commission recommended introducing quotas for women in party election lists, noting that Georgia is one of the last in the number of female MPs. The amendments to the Law "On Citizens' Political Associations", which, however, are not binding, stipulate that two women should be listed among every 10 candidates on the party list. The parties, which will follow this provision of the law, will receive additional funding of 10 percent of the total budget funding for the campaign.

"The quota for women will be taken into account in our party list without any financial motivation in the proportion of two to eight. Our movement did it earlier," Levan Vepkhvadze, Vice-Speaker of the Parliament from the oppositional Christian Democratic Movement, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The opposition party "New Right-Wingers" has set its own quota in the party list – three women per every ten candidates. Besides, the party has nominated six women for the elections under the majority system.

Earlier, Rusudan Kervalishvili, Vice-Speaker of the Parliament from the ruling party "United National Movement", treated quotas for women as "a great achievement". "This is the first step that allows political parties to be interested in the evaluation of women and their participation in the political process," she said.

In turn, a political analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze finds women's quotas humiliating. He did not rule out that if parties ensure quotas for women in their party lists, it may be done out of a desire to obtain additional financing or just to please the West.