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At a glance

Structure of Parliament: Bicameral

Are there legislated quotas...

  • Yes for the Single/Lower House?
  • Yes for the Upper House?
  • Yes at the Sub-national level?

Are there voluntary quotas...

  • Yes adopted by political parties?

Is there additional information?

Yes

Uruguay

(Eastern Republic of Uruguay)

Single/Lower house

Cámara de Representantes / House of Representatives

Total seats:99
Total women:12
% women: 12%
Election year:2009
Electoral system:List PR
Quota type: Legislated Candidate Quotas
Election details: IDEA Voter Turnout
IPU Parline
Legal sourceDetails
Quota type:
Legislated Candidate Quotas		 Electoral law For the elections to be held in 2014 the law stipulates that candidates of both sexes must be represented in every three places on electoral lists, either throughout the entire list or in the first fifteen places. Where only two seats are contested, one of the two candidates must be a woman (Law nº 18.476, Article 2 [2-3]).
Legal sanctions for non-compliance: Electoral law Lists that fail to comply shall be rejected by the Electoral Court (Law nº 18.476, Article 3).
Rank order/placement rules: Electoral law Women must be represented in every third place on candidate lists, either throughout the entire list or in the first fifteen places (Law nº 18.476, Article 2 [2]).

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Last updated 2013-03-11

Upper house

Cámara de Senadores / Senate

Total seats: 31
Total women:4
% women: 13%
Election year:2009
Electoral system:List PR
Quota type: Legislated Candidate Quotas
Election details: IPU Parline
Legal sourceDetails
Quota type:
Legislated Candidate Quotas
 Electoral law For the elections to be held in 2014 the law stipulates that candidates of both sexes must be represented in every three places on electoral lists, either throughout the entire list or in the first fifteen places. Where only two seats are contested, one of the two candidates must be a woman (Law nº 18.476, Article 2 [2-3]).
Legal sanctions for non-compliance: Electoral law Lists that fail to comply shall be rejected by the Electoral Court (Law nº 18.476, Article 3).
Rank order/placement rules: Electoral law Women must be represented in every third place on candidate lists, either throughout the entire list or in the first fifteen places (Law nº 18.476, Article 2 [2]).

Sources | Additional information | Contact us

Last updated 2009-12-29

Quota at the Sub-National Level

Quota type:Legislated Candidate Quotas
Legal sourceDetails
Quota type:
Legislated Candidate Quotas
 Electoral law For elections to departmental legislative bodies, candidates of both sexes must be represented in every three places on electoral lists, either throughout the entire list or in the first fifteen places. Where only two seats are contested, one of the two candidates must be a woman. However, the law limits the application of the quota to the 2015 departmental elections (Law nº 18.476, Article 2 [2-3]).
Legal sanctions for non-compliance: Electoral law Lists that fail to comply shall be rejected by the Electoral Court (Law nº 18.476, Article 3).
Rank order/placement rules: Electoral law Women must be represented in every third place on candidate lists, either throughout the entire list or in the first fifteen places (Law nº 18.476, Article 2 [2]).

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Last updated 2009-11-17

Voluntary Political Party Quotas*

PartyAcronymOfficial NameDetails, Quota provisions
Socialist Party of Uruguay PS Partido Socialista del Uruguay In the 1980's PS adopted a quota for women. The quota is dependent upon the percentage of women members of the Party in each jurisdiction. (Statutes 2003, Art. 65)

* Only political parties represented in parliament are included. When a country has legislated quotas in place, only political parties that have voluntary quotas that exceed the percentage/number of the national quota legislation are presented in this table.

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Last updated 2009-11-30

Additional information

The current quota law, nº 18.476, also establishes quotas for internal party elections: among the candidates to parties? conventions and executive bodies, one out of three candidates must be a woman. The quota is applicable from the internal elections to be held in June 2009 and without temporal limits (Article 2 [1]).

Old data: The women's caucus, including women from both houses and several parties, have pushed for a quota law since the early 1980s. In the 1980s, the Network of Female Politicians proposed amending the constitution to mandate quotas for women in politics, and a bill was proposed in 1988 stipulating that electoral lists should not have more than 75% candidates of the same sex. Neither proposal was successful. (Johnson 2008, p 4-6).

Last updated 2011-05-12

Sources

  • Law nº 18.476, National and Departmental Elections (Ley nº 18.476, Órganos electivos nacionales y departamentales y de dirección de los partidos políticos)
  • Johnson, Niki (2008), "Uruguay - Situación y buenas prácticas de promoción de una mayor participación femenina en la política", in Del dicho al hecho: manual de buenas practicas para la participación de mujeres en los partidos políticos latinoamericanos, Beatriz Llanos & Kristen Sample (eds.), Stockholm: International IDEA

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