Record number of women running in October’s general elections

The Czech Republic still lags behind most European states as regards the proportion of seats held by women in the country’s national parliament, Czech Radio reported. With a 23 percent share of female MPs in the outgoing lower house, the country is behind the majority of EU states, and mid-way down the list of post-communist countries. The OECD average is currently 31.6.

Czech Radio says the picture may change after October’s general elections in which a third of contenders for seats in the lower house are women, the most since 2006. Statistics show that women more often than men owe their mandate to preferential votes.