In the end the doubts were more than well founded. The Prefecture excluded the three candidates, all male, from the Terra Unica Molise list, linked to the candidate for mayor of the Cantiere civico, the lawyer Pino Ruta. As required by law, these are the last three names in alphabetical order, namely Antonio Paduano, Davide Scola and Michele Testa known as Coccia.
The list, presented last Friday, included only 7 women out of the 24 total candidates, and passed the ‘scrutiny’ of the municipality’s electoral commission which did not notice the failure to respect the gender quota.
For the election of municipal councils, in municipalities with a population exceeding 5,000 inhabitants, law 23 November 2012 n. 215, provides for the so-called list quota: «On the lists of candidates, neither sex can be represented by more than two thirds (with rounding to the next higher unit for the less represented gender, even in the case of a decimal figure less than 0, 5)”. Therefore, all things considered, in the Terra Unica Molise list there should have been 8 female candidates and not 7.
Furthermore, the law provides that «in municipalities with a population exceeding 15,000 inhabitants, the electoral commission, in the event of non-compliance with the quota, reduces the list, eliminating the candidates of the most represented gender, starting from the last, until ensuring the compliance with the quota; the list which, after cancellations, contains a number of candidates lower than the minimum required by law is rejected and, therefore, lapses”.
Terra Unica Molise, after the cancellation of the three candidates, is reduced to 21, the minimum number expected and therefore remains in the running for the administrative elections of 8 and 9 June.
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