São Tomé and Príncipe's Political Parity Law: A 40% Quota Awaiting Its First Electoral Test

On 28 July 2022, all 55 deputies of São Tomé and Príncipe's National Assembly voted unanimously to approve a Political Parity Law reserving a minimum of 40% of seats in the National Assembly and the Cabinet, and 40% of directorate posts across public administration, for women; candidate lists must now alternate genders in their first two positions. The law followed years of advocacy by a multi-sector coalition of women parliamentarians, civil-society groups and women lawyers, including former Prime Minister Maria das Neves and former Justice Minister Ilza Amado Vaz, who published a "Women's Political Participation" handbook days before the vote. UN Women, UNDP and the UN Department of Political Affairs provided technical support.
Before the reform, women held just 12% of National Assembly seats and 20% of cabinet posts. São Tomé and Príncipe had elected its first female prime minister, Maria das Neves, back in October 2002, but two decades on, progress had stalled. The parity law only came into force on 19 November 2022, after that year's 25 September legislative election had already been held, so it did not apply to that vote: women won 8 of 55 seats (14.55%), unchanged from 2018 and a decline from the 23.6% share women held in the outgoing chamber immediately before the poll.
São Tomé and Príncipe's World Bank Women, Business and the Law index score rose from 53.8 in 2008 to 83.1 in 2023, reflecting broader legal gains for women — the same year, 2008, the country separately enacted Law No. 11/2008 on domestic violence, with sentences of up to 16 years. Yet the World Bank reports that domestic-violence cases reported to police kept rising over the following 15 years, and that courts still sometimes cite outdated Penal Code provisions instead of the dedicated law. The parity quota's first real electoral test will be the parliamentary election scheduled for 27 September 2026.

Read the full analysis: https://wildaf-ao.org/en/sao-tome-and-principe-tangible-gains-for-women-in-politics/