Paraguay
The proportion of female candidates for municipal councils fell, while it rose for mayoral races in 2026
Data from the Superior Court of Electoral Justice show a decline in women’s participation in council candidacies compared with 2021, although there was an increase in mayoral candidacies. ABC Color also warned about setbacks and gaps in effective access to elected office.
The 2026 municipal elections show an uneven picture for women’s participation in Paraguay. According to data from the Superior Court of Electoral Justice cited by ABC Color, the proportion of female candidates for Municipal Councils fell compared with the 2021 elections, while mayoral candidacies registered an increase.
According to the TSJE, for municipal council seats women account for 32.2% of all candidacies, below the 36% reached in 2021. By contrast, for the office of mayor, the share rose from 12.8% in the previous election to 15.9% in this cycle.
The outlet also noted that the gap between candidacies and the offices actually won remains wide. As an example, it pointed out that in 2021 women made up 36% of the candidates for municipal councils and ended up holding 22.7% of those seats. In mayoral races, women had accounted for 12.8% of the candidates and those elected reached 11.8%.
ABC Color linked that gap to the persistence of a macho culture that still limits confidence in women to hold public office. In that context, it recalled that the Authentic Radical Liberal Party last year amended its internal statute to reduce to 20% the minimum participation of women in legislative candidacies, a decision that was seen as a setback in terms of equality.
The article added that, according to the TSJE’s Observatory of Women’s Political Participation, there was a gradual increase in women elected between 1996 and 2023 in different national offices. In Congress, female participation in 2023 was 22.6%, a level the newspaper described as historic. In the Senate, 11 women entered out of 45 seats, although that later fell to nine after the departures of Katya González and Norma Aquino, who were replaced by men. In the Chamber of Deputies, 18 women won 80 seats and later one more female seat was added with the replacement of Luis Benítez by Fabiana Souto.
It was also highlighted that in 2023 two women were elected governors for the first time in the same election: Liz Meza, in Concepción, and Norma Zárate de Monges, in Paraguarí. In addition, the current voter roll shows, according to ABC Color, a smaller number of registered female voters than male voters.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with assistance from artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this event.
