Legislative Quotas for Women: A global and ... - Aurat Foundation

AfghanistanAfghanistan’s National Assembly consists of two Houses - the House ofPeople (Wolesi Jirga) with 249 seats, and the House of Elders (MeshranoJirga) with 102 seats. Both the houses have a 27 percent representation ofwomen through ‘Reserved Seats’ as guaranteed by the Constitution andelectoral law.Article 83 of the Afghan Constitution says that “The Wolesi Jirga shouldhave no more than 250 members, and be proportional to the population ofeach of the provinces, and contain, on average, two women from eachprovince. Article 20 & 23 further stipulate that “The number of seats fromeach province and the number of female seats from each province is to bedecided by the Independent Electoral Commission, although no provinceshall have less than two seats and the female seats shall be at least twicethe number of provinces. Currently this means 68 out of the 249 whichcomes to 27 percent, including at least 3 women in 10 reserved seats forKuchi nomads 37 .Similarly, Article 84 of the Constitution says that The Meshrano Jirgawill comprise of 1/3 representatives from provinces, 1/3 from districtcouncils and 1/3 presidential appointees. The presidential appointees willbe the experts and experienced persons and 50 percent of them should bewomen. At present there are 28 women in the 102 member’s chamber.Eleven women were indirectly elected while 17 were appointed by thePresident. 38The electoral law has also provided a 25 percent quota for women in theprovincial councils. The law states that one quarter of the seats in eachprovincial council shall be reserved for female candidates. Theprovisional councils range from 9 to 29 members and women can makeup more than the reserved quarter.37 http://www.quotaproject.org38 http://www.ipu.org38