The 2015 Election Witnesses a Decline in the number of Male Candidates Comparing to Female Candidates

(Cairo, February 24th, 2015) The Higher Electoral Commission (HEC) announced a statement that includes the final number of male and female candidates who submitted their nominations documents to run in the 2015 parliamentary elections. The total number is 6467 male and female candidates.
Out of the total number, 949 are female candidates and 5518 are male candidates. The parliamentary elections in 2011 included a total number of 8113 candidates; 984 females and 7129 males.
Thus, the 2015 parliamentary elections witness a significant decline of the number of male candidates comparing to female candidates compared to 2011 elections, 22.5% decrease in males’ nomination while 3.5% in females’ nomination.

This highlights the increasing number of active women in the political sphere despite of the security risks and the field difficulties.

Number of Female Candidates 2011/2015

ECWR appreciates the efforts of the Higher Electoral Commission (HEC) that provides gender-sensitive information on parliamentary elections, compared to previous years when information shared was not disaggregated by gender.

ECWR considers this step as a response to its persistent demand to have a gender-sensitive electoral database analyzing female to male participation that can help ECWR in its monitoring and analyzing efforts.