PN MP Hermann Schiavone said that the gender equality mechanism for parliament should also include those who are from third parties and get elected into Parliament.
“It is not right that we are introducing laws that only include the two main parties. If we really believe in equality in parliament, the reform needs to apply even if a third party gets elected in parliament,” Schiavone said.
“This law won’t solve the problem. We need to highlight that this country needs more women, but we want better conditions. We want them to come here and contest.”
The MP said that more amendments need to be made in order to have more equality in parliament.
“I want to make an appeal; we need to meet and make a number of amendments. We need to have courage to change conditions of parliaments members so that we can have good people here.”
Schiavone said the Opposition is proposing a number of amendments for casual elections to take place on the same day of vote-counting, which would lead to a situation where each party would know the composition of its Parliamentary Group on the same day. The normal process whereby MPs elected on two districts give up one seat, paving the way for a casual election, usually takes weeks, he explained.