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Good practice

Dominican Republic Electoral Gender Quota System — From 25% Candidacy Requirement to 40/60 Parity (1997–2024)

Dominican Republic · Santo Domingo · See the Dominican Republic profile

Since 1997 the Dominican Republic has progressively tightened its electoral candidate quota from 25% to a 40–60% parity band, lifting women's share in the Chamber of Deputies from 11.7% to 36.8% (70 of 190 seats) by the May 2024 elections — the highest ever recorded.

25 %
Initial candidate quota (1997)
33 %
Later candidate quota
40–60 %
Current candidate list parity band
11.7 %
Women's share, Chamber of Deputies, pre-1997 (before 1997)
36.8 %
Women's share, Chamber of Deputies (May 2024 (70 of 190 seats))
13 %
Women's share, Senate (2024 (4 of 32 seats))

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Junta Central Electoral / Congreso Nacional
Period
1997–present
Keywords
electoral governance, gender equality, legislation

Context

Since December 1997 the Dominican Republic has required political parties to include a minimum share of women among electoral candidates, under electoral law administered by the Junta Central Electoral and Congreso Nacional.

Activities

The candidate quota began at 25% in 1997 and was later raised to 33%; the current Electoral Law requires candidate lists to be no less than 40% nor more than 60% of either sex, with electoral boards empowered to reject non-compliant lists within 72 hours. A parallel Senate quota requirement was revoked in 2002.

Results

Women's share of Chamber of Deputies seats rose from about 11.7% before the 1997 reform to 36.8% (70 of 190 seats) after the May 2024 elections, the highest level on record. Senate representation, which lacks an active quota, remains lower at 4 of 32 seats (13%).

Conclusions

The Dominican case suggests that quotas with strong enforcement (automatic rejection of non-compliant lists) drove real gains in the lower chamber, while the absence of such enforcement in the Senate produced stagnation there.

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.

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