Candidate selection processes in democratic systems are mostly controlled by political parties rather than by voters’ decisions. Political parties act as gate-keepers and effectively decide who stands the chance of being elected and who does not.
Quotas may guide the political party’s candidate selection process for general elections and for internal party posts. These may be either legislated in the Constitution or in the electoral law, or be voluntary introduced by political parties.
Voluntary party quotas can be either quotas for internal party posts or quotas for different stages of the candidate selection process in the political party. For the former, please read Internal elections for Leadership positions and top national leadership selection. This file deals only with voluntary party candidate quotas.
Internal voluntary party quotas for candidates to general elections are targets set by political parties to include a certain percentage of, for example, women or national minorities as candidates. The quota has voluntarily been adopted by the political party and is not required by law. Parties can choose to stipulate their internal quota in their constitution or in other internal regulatory documents.
With an internal quota system, political parties can clearly demonstrate their willingness to encourage disadvantaged groups and to put the idea of fair representation and equal opportunities into practice – even in countries without legislated quotas. Where legislated quotas exist, parties can still choose to go even further in their internal quotas.
Given that internal voluntary party quotas are not mandated by law, they are not legally binding, and there is no sanction system in place. However, since these quotas stem from an internal decision within the party, they are often just as respected as legislated quotas and thereby also as effective.
Types of voluntary party candidate quotas
Voluntary party quota requirements can be on three levels:
This quota type is made to open up the possibilities for party selection committees or voters in primary elections to select candidates from a more diverse pool of potential candidates than is normally presented to them. “Women only shortlists” is one way of broadening the pool of potential candidates by including more women on the party list than would have been represented otherwise
Most voluntary party quotas fall into this category, where a fixed number or percentage of the places on the candidate lists or total number of candidates is set aside for persons belonging to the group(s) targeted by the law. For this type of voluntary quota to be really effective, it is often combined with a placement criteria whereby the disadvantaged groups are promised not only nomination but nomination to winnable seats. This is sometimes called a “double quota”. Quotas for candidate lists exist in plurality/majority systems but tend to be most effective in proportional representation systems (see also Factors influencing the implementation of voluntary party candidate quotas).[1]
Quotas for the elected representatives target the outcome of the elections. A political party can decide that out of the seats they win in an election, a certain number or percentage should be set aside for women or minority groups. This is only applicable to systems where parties are able to determine who is going to occupy the seat. (see the example of Niger)
