The Parliament of France has adopted legislation that will require municipalities with less than 1,000 inhabitants to apply gender parity in elections for local councilors and mayors.
The Parliament of France adopted on Monday a bill that will extend the ‘gender parity’ system to municipal elections in small communes.
The very debated bill received 192 votes in favor (111 against) in the Senate, and approved the Assembly with 206 votes for (181 against).
Municipalities with less than 1,000 representatives of 70 percent of the cities and towns of France. In municipalities, women only represent 37.6 percent of elected officials, compared to 48.5 percent in larger cities.
The new gender parity requirement will change the way people in small cities in France vote for their local representatives, putting it in line with the requirements that are already in force for larger cities and cities.
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How does the vote in small municipal elections work?
Until now, the councilors in the cities with Ferwer of 1,000 inhabitants were chosen through a majority voting system, which intended to be a hero in two rounds (he thought that sometimes he ends up being a round).
The system allowed the votes to be counted by the candidate, so a candidate could have presented alone or as part of a group.
The division of votes has been allowed (voting for candidates in different lists) and the vote of preference (eliminate names), and the voters were also allowed to write in the names of the favorite candidates. This is called Panachage System.
The general idea is that in smaller areas, it may be more difficult to find people to represent the elections. For example, if there is only the exact number of candidates, since there are seats available, then the vote will go directly to the second round.
Read more: what you need to know about the (very complicated) municipal elections of France
How will the voting process change the parity requirements?
The legislation will enter into force from 2026 (the next scheduled community elections). At this time, small peoples will be treated as any other larger muticipality.
Basically, this means that voters will have to choose between fixed lists, which have equal gender distributions. This means that it would not be allowed to mix candidates from different lists and cross people.
Read more: France practice ‘Diversity, equity and inclusion’?
The parliamentarians of the Rassemblementa National (RN) party of the extreme right and the right -wing the right -wings have criticized the impulse of gender parity in the small municipal elections, and some ask that only be applied after 2032.
“In many municipalities, there will only be one list, so there will be no other option for voters,” said RN deputy Jordan Guitton to the French press.
The defenders, like the deputy Delphine Lingemann of the Modem of the centrist party, said: “[Gender] Parity should not stop at the doors of the big cities. ”
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