Women in Parliament

Chamber of Deputies

The Constitution of the Czech Republic states that the deputies to the Chamber of Deputies are elected on the basis of an universal, equal and direct franchise by secret ballot, according to the principles of a proportional representation. The Chamber has 200 seats. After 2010 election there are 44 (22 %) women in the Chamber.

Senate

According to the Constitution of the Czech Republic the Senate is permanently active, the term of election is six years and every two years one third of the senators is elected. In the Senate there are 81 seats.
After the 2010 elections all supporters of higher representation of women in politics cannot be much delighted: there is only one female senator more in the upper house of the parliament. Instead of previous 14 seats women politicians obtained 15 seats in the newly elected Senate. The representation of women increased from 17 % to 18,5 % which is worse score than the Chamber of Deputies can boast about. This could be because of the fact that political researches show that the majority system used for election to Senate is more disadvantageous that the proportional system used in election to the Chamber of Deputies.

Four women were elected in total: Alena Dernerová (Severočeši.cz), Dagmar Terelmešová (ČSSD), Veronika Vrecionová (ODS) and Miluše Horská (independent).


It is clear that voters support women in politics. If women politicians candidate individually and are not pushed to posterior eligible places on lists of candidates as happens in election to the Parliament they have good chances to succeed. And last Chamber of Deputies election showed that women candidates have direct support from voters - 14 female deputies out of 44 were elected thanks to preferential votes. The question is when this matter of fact will be taken into consideration by political parties.


For detailed information about the Parliament click here.