Good practice

Ley del Régimen Electoral de Bolivia — Paridad y Rotación de Género (Ley 026/2010)

Bolivia · La Paz · See the Bolivia profile

La Ley 026/2010 de Bolivia impone paridad 50/50 y rotación de género en todas las listas electorales de candidatos. La representación femenina en la Asamblea Plurinacional aumentó del 14% (2009) al 53% en la Cámara de Diputados y al 47% en el Senado en 2020, entre las más altas del mundo.

53%

Mujeres en la cámara baja (2020)

47%

Mujeres en la cámara alta (2020)

14%

Proporción de referencia de mujeres (2009)

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: Tribunal Supremo Electoral de Bolivia
Period: 2010–present
Keywords: electoral law, gender parity, political representation, legislative bodies, Latin America

Context

La Ley 026/2010 de Bolivia impone la paridad de 50/50 y la alternancia en todas las listas de candidaturas electorales.

Results

La proporción de mujeres en la Asamblea Plurinacional subió del 14 % en 2009 al 53 % en la cámara baja y al 47 % en la cámara alta en 2020, una de las más altas del mundo.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-21
Tribunal Supremo Electoral de Bolivia — accessed 2026-06-21
ACE Project — Bolivia Ley 026/2010 Régimen Electoral (full text) — accessed 2026-06-21
International IDEA — Bolivia electoral system and gender quotas database — accessed 2026-06-21
UN Women — Bolivia Strategic Note 2022–2026 — accessed 2026-06-21
SDG16.plus / Pathfinders — Bolivia's 30% gender quota led to world's largest share — accessed 2026-06-21

Quality score: 96/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 4% in this catalogue (719 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Transferability / replicability2/3

Bolivia's parity-and-rotation model is cited by International IDEA as a regional reference and influenced similar provisions in Ecuador and Costa Rica; it has less global replication than the Norwegian board quota.

Impact on gender equality1/1

Women's share in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly's lower house rose from 14% (2009) to 53.1% (2014) and 48% (2020), a documented 34–39 percentage-point increase (IPU Parline, UN Women).

Effectiveness1/1

Full legislative parity was achieved in both chambers after the first election cycle under Law 026, meeting the constitutional mandate set by the 2009 Constitution.

Efficiency1/1

Enforcement through electoral list validation by the Tribunal Supremo Electoral achieves compliance at low administrative cost; no additional state funding is required beyond the existing electoral machinery.

Evaluated outcomes1/1

International IDEA Gender Quotas Database, UN Women Strategic Note Bolivia 2022–2026, IPU Parline, and UNDP Country Report provide independent, authoritative outcome data.

Sustainability1/1

Parity levels have been maintained across at least four national electoral cycles (2010, 2014, 2019, 2020), demonstrating that the mechanism is institutionally durable.

Achievement / evidence1/1

In 2020, Bolivia's Chamber of Deputies was 48% female and the Senate 56% female, placing Bolivia among the world's highest-ranked countries for women's legislative representation (IPU Parline 2020).

Gender-mainstreaming embedding1/1

Gender equality is embedded in the 2009 Constitution (Arts. 11, 147) and operationalised in Law 026 as a binding structural requirement for all candidate lists, not a voluntary target.

Curator validation1/1

All outcome data sourced from authoritative international bodies: IPU Parline global database, UN Women, UNDP, and International IDEA — independently verifiable.

Cite this

Evidoria. Ley del Régimen Electoral de Bolivia — Paridad y Rotación de Género (Ley 026/2010). Persistent ID: 20fdece8-c1f6-4f61-a491-f52cc5f01fca.

Export as decision brief (PDF)

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