Local elections will be carried out in 210 municipalities this year, since 17 new municipalities have joined the existing 193 after two consultative referendums. The new municipalities have less than 5000 inhabitants, who will elect 8 to 15 representatives to their municipal councils.
Parliament Speaker France Cukjati has called local elections for 22 October. According to the decree that Cukjati signed on Thursday, preparations for the election of 210 mayors and almost 3,400 municipal councillors will kick off on 21 August.
Since 1994, when a radical reform of local self-government was carried out, parliament has established new municipalities in four rounds. There are 46 municipalities with 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants, 51 with a population between 10,000 and 50,000, one with a population between 50,000 and 100,000 and only 2 municipalities have more than 100,000 inhabitants. The act on local self-government allows exceptions, as municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants can be established for geographical, national, historical or economic reasons.
Parties or independent lists taking part in this year's local elections will have to observe a 20% women quota, whereby in the first half of the list at least one out of three candidate will have to be a woman. This is a transitive solution, since the quota will be phased in until it reaches 40% for the 2014 local elections.
Women quotas for local elections were introduced by last year's amendments to the local elections act in order to promote a more balanced participation of men and women.
Similarly, the women quota will be phased in for the general elections. The changes to the general elections act introduce an eventual 35% quota, with the figure to stand at 25% in 2008.
By law men and women are equal in Slovenia, however in practice this does not mean they have an equal say in political decision-making.
Considering their share in the whole population, women are insufficiently represented at all levels of political decision-making - in elected as well as appointed political bodies at state and local levels.
Only 22% of candidates for the municipal councils and only 11% of mayoral candidates in 2002 were women. The Office for Equal Opportunities reported that in 193 municipalities only 12 women were elected mayors that year, that is 6.2%.
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