Women in Politics Network
“For me, the network of the Women in Politics is like a toddler who is learning to walk.
Not that we didn’t know how to walk, but the Network taught us to walk hand by hand”, Lindita Doda, member of the Municipality Council, Burrel.
Since 2011, the Decentralization and Local DevelopmentProgramme (dldp) has supported the Network “Women in Politics” (hereinafter WiP). The Network was established with the initiative of the local councilors of the Regions of Shkodra and Lezha and since 2015, has been expanded to the regions of Durres, Kukes and Diber.
Conclusions and Recommendations about the Network of Women in Politics
Tirana, April 2015
The Context of reforms before the elections in June 2015
Since 2008, when the gender quota was determined in the Electoral Code, many national actors supported by international stakeholders proved to be active on its implementation and they analyzed the reasons for such quota failure. After the parliamentary elections in 2013, it was established the Alliance of Women MPs, which undertook an initiative for amendments to the Electoral Code where political parties had to nominate not less than 20% women candidates for mayors and not less than 40% women candidates for municipal councils. The amendments also
anticipated the non-acceptance of lists for chairman/chairwoman and candidates if these two criteria had not been met. Regarding the composition for the lists of candidates for municipal councils, the zebra version (one man –one woman) had to be implemented, and if such criterion would not be applied, then the Central Election Commission would not accept the lists, and the fine alternative would be removed in case of not fulfilling this criterion.