Kazakhstani Women to Get Gender Quotas for Party Lists

07.07.2020, 02:48 kursiv.kz

For the first time in its history, Kazakhstan has introduced gender quotas for party lists. According to the new law, if a party submits its list of candidates to the mazhilis (parliament) and maslikhats (municipal assemblies) this document must include people under 29 as well as women. These two categories of candidates should comprise not less than 30% of the whole party list. “There are several reasons for these new quotas,” said Ayman Zhusupova, expert of the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the First President Foundation. First of all, Kazakhstan is intended to join the ranks of developed countries and is obliged to provide women with the right to be represented in the b