Tunisia Election Raises Hopes for Arab Women and Democracy: View

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- As Tunisians await final results intheir national election, the first in a country remade by theArab Spring, it’s worth paying particular attention to theoutcome for women there. One hopes it leads reformers in otherArab states to understand that it will be impossible to advancetheir societies if half of the population is held back.

Tunisia’s caretaker government crafted an innovative systemto ensure that women were represented in the new constituentassembly. Candidates for 217 seats divided among 33 districtsran not as individuals, but as members of lists. After votetallies are certified, lists will be assigned a proportion ofseats based on the percentage of votes their list garnered inthe district, and must place candidates in office according totheir order on the list. Not only do the electoral rules mandatethat half of all names on a list be women, but to prevent top-loading the roster with men, the lists had to alternate theircandidates by gender.