Welsh Government Launches Bill to Introduce Gender Quota in Elections

The coalition government in Wales has published its new bill to introduce gender quotas in elections on Monday after the plan was put on hold last year.
If the Senedd Cymru (Electoral Candidate Lists) Bill becomes law, at least half of a political party’s candidate list will have to be women, at both the constituency level and national level.
However, the future of the bill has already been thrown into doubt after Llywydd (Presiding Officer) Elin Jones MS said she believes the legislative area is reserved for the central government in London.
It comes after a previously leaked draft said a woman can be a transgender male who identifies as a woman.
In September 2023, the Welsh government introduced a wider bill to reform the Senedd, including plans to increase its size from 60 members to 96 members, shorten the term of the legislature from five years to four years, and change the electoral system so that all Members are elected via closed list proportional representation.
The government was initially going to publish the gender quota bill on Dec. 4, but the plan was cancelled at the last minute, with the government saying it was still working on the bill.
A 78-page explanatory note of the bill says political parties will submit candidate gender statements to the Constituency Returning Officers so they can check compliance with the quota rules.
When there’s an odd number of candidates on the list, the majority of candidates must be women.
The bill also stipulated that any man’s name on the list, except the last one, must be followed by that of a woman’s.
When more than one list is submitted, first or only candidate on at least half of the lists must be a woman.
Jane Hutt, minister for social justice and chief whip, said in a declaration that she believes the proposals are “within the legislative competence of Senedd Cymru,” meaning it is a devolved matter for the Welsh legislature.
If the bill is approved in Wales, it could then be mired in legal battles.
Scotland’s highest civil court ruled in December that the UK Government’s blocking of the bill was lawful. The Scottish government gave up on further legal actions.