Ecuador’s National Women’s Coalition Deems Reform to Electoral Law “Misogynistic”
Women’s rights organizations across Ecuador have denounced recent electoral reforms that scrap gender parity in presidential tickets, calling the move a major blow to women’s political rights. They urged President Daniel Noboa to veto the changes, citing constitutional and human rights violations.
Ecuador’s President, Daniel Noboa. (Archive). PHOTO: EFE
June 29, 2025 Hour: 2:20 am
About thirty organizations that advocate for women’s rights in Ecuador rejected on Saturday the recent reforms to the electoral law that eliminate the principle of parity and alternation in presidential candidacies, affirming that they constitute “a serious setback” in the historic struggle of women for political representation and representative democracy.
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In a joint statement released by the National Women’s Coalition, the organizations pointed out that gender parity is considered “the most relevant legal mechanism” for defending “equitable political participation and representation.” On that line, they rejected the attempt to erase history “in one stroke” after 28 years of struggle to achieve this women’s right.
On June 20, the Parliament approved, by 125 votes, a series of reforms to the Democracy Code, Ecuador’s electoral law, including changes to Article 99, which had outlined that the composition of candidate lists for various offices must be parity-based. However, in the approved text, the clause in that article requiring that all binomial elections include one woman and one man is no longer present.
“With absolute indignation, we categorically reject the reform to Article 99 of the Democracy Code for being ambiguous, misogynistic, and constituting a blatant regression of rights,” the coalition stated.
The text reads: ‼️ Women Choose Not to Retreat from Their Rights ‼️The recent reforms to the Democracy Code, approved by the @AsambleaEcuador, eliminate the principle of gender parity and alternation in single-ticket candidacies (president and vice president), representing a serious…
“This reform was also approved—including last-minute changes—without proper debate and without consultation with women’s organizations or the citizenry, violating the democratic and transparency principles that should govern the lawmaking process,” they added.
The groups called out that the reform is unconstitutional and contravenes international human rights instruments, both in general and specifically those related to women’s political participation and visibility.”
Regarding that, they called on President Daniel Noboa, in his capacity as co-legislator, to veto this reform for “violating the principle of parity and the political rights of women won throughout Ecuador’s history.”
Author: VMMH
Source: EFE
