The only one that fulfills the task with the inclusion of women in Congress is the Historical Pact: MOE

After the elections to the Congress of the Republic held on March 13, the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) reported that these elections marked history against the place that women will occupy in the legislative branch; however, not all political parties contributed to this female representation.

The EOM assured that 83 women were elected: 33 will occupy a seat in the Senate and 51 will reach the House of Representatives. “This means that 29% of seats will be held by women,” the organization said. It should be recalled that this report is preliminary, since it was made with 98.84 per cent of the polls counted.

If these results were confirmed, in the Senate of the Republic, there would be an increase of 10 more women senators compared to the 2018 elections and the presence of women in the upper house would increase from 21.3% to 30.8%.

In the House of Representatives, 46 women were elected by the territorial Chamber, one woman for Colombians abroad, one woman for the Afro Chamber and 3 women by the Special Transitional Constituencies of Peace (CITREP). This means that 28% of these seats belong to the female gender.

It should be recalled that the EOM also highlighted the increase in the political representation of LGBTIQ+ persons in the Congress of the Republic. It went from two congressmen elected in 2018 to 6 people belonging to this community: one person in the Senate and 5 in the House of Representatives. “The arrival of these congressmen means a breakthrough in democracy and is the opportunity for a legislative agenda to be promoted that guarantees the rights of people with diverse sexual orientation and gender identity,” the organization said.

Infobae Colombia interviewed the director of the EOM, Alejandra Barrios, who commented on the reasons behind this historic vote.

Infobae: This representation of women in Congress is the highest in Colombian history. As noted by the EOM, what is the reason for this?

Alejandra Barrios (A.B.) : Society is clearly changing. The girls and young people who took to the streets do generate change. That was not given away, they earned that on the street and they earned it by saying “we are ready to have power and they have to take us into account”. In that struggle I also think that we must recognize all those men who accompanied those women, the brothers, the boyfriends, the dads, the husbands, the grandparents who said: “Yes, they are ready for a while, but they haven't looked at them”.

Infobae: Even though women are ready to occupy these spaces, what made them really have that 29% representation in Congress?

A.B.: It is important to note that we have not yet reached 30% representation and we are still below what is established in terms of the quota law for the formation of the lists. However, pressure from women's organizations in society has led to the fact that today, for example, it is impossible to think of a presidential vice-presidential formula without there being a woman.

These social demands were reflected in the formation of four lists that had an effort of parity and alternation in the first places.

Infobae Colombia: The four closed lists that sought parity were from the New Liberalism, Commons - except for the five seats they have for the Peace Agreement - Historical Pact and We Are Ready. However, from those parties only the Historical Pact reached the Senate, why did this happen?

A.B.: We followed up on the issue of financing political campaigns and the first obstacle is that political organizations that do not achieve private funding have to wait for advances from the State.

Although this is regulated, what ends up happening is that the private financial sector becomes a barrier because it is the one who has to give the policy, which involves resources that have to be paid. In addition, the policy has to be backed up with real assets and it becomes almost impossible to obtain those resources that must also guarantee an electoral result.

Infobae Colombia: Despite this panorama, the presence of the first indigenous woman in that constituency and the first Palenquera woman to arrive in the Chamber through Bolívar were highlighted. What does this represent for the next four years of government?

A.B.: It is always striking to see great indigenous leaders at the helm of the mingas and organizations, but when we turn to political representation they are not there. For these organizations, the beginning is to open a path, but above all a recognition of representation. This was also seen in the competition of the coalitions of pre-candidates for the presidency of the Republic in the Historical Pact after Francia Márquez, an Afro woman, took the third ballot among the 15 candidates.

There something began to change in the country, because for many decades political representation had been seen only in white men. Colombia is opening up different options for representation and that is very important because it represents other interests, other cultural approaches and other territorial approaches.

Infobae Colombia: In that sense, which parties and departments elected women the most in Congress?

A.B.: If you evaluate the behavior of the parties in relation to the inclusion results of women, the only one that fulfills the task of those who managed to pass the threshold is the Historical Pact. Of its 16 senators of the Republic, eight would be women, that is, half.

The rest of the parties do not fulfill the task. Radical Change only chose one woman out of 11 senators of the Republic and the party of the U, he has only one woman out of 10 senators. It's a gigantic distance.

In the House of Representatives, the departments where the most women were elected were Amazonas (their two seats were won by women, 100%), Quindio (67%), Sucre (67%), Magdalena (60%) and Bogotá (56%). The political parties that had a majority of women elected were the Liberal Party (11), the Historical Pact (9), the U Party (5) and the Conservative Party (5).

Infobae Colombia: What were the departments where there was the least representation?

A.B.: Well, look, in 10 of the 19 departments where the gender quota is not applied, no woman got a place. The department of Guaviare did not have any women as candidates for the House of Representatives, while Norte de Santander remains the only department with a gender quota on the lists in which no woman has been elected House Representative in its entire history.

When you see those departments, all of them have had and continue to have high levels of violence towards social, political and common leaders.

Infobae Colombia: Of the 16 Special Transitional Constituencies for Peace (CITREP), three seats were achieved for women. How does the EOM see this result?

A.B.: In the Electoral Observation Mission we are sad. For the first time we had lists where it was mandatory to have parity in the two candidates running for the candidacies that were submitted. It was hoped that we could have more women, at least 5 or 6 seats would have been a very good start and this is telling us that for women in rural areas, barriers to access to representation are very strong.

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