"Major parties have fully met the one-third women representation requirement through first-past-the-post candidacies alone."

Candidate data for the March 5 election show that women make up only 11.35 percent of all first-past-the-post candidates across 165 constituencies, far below the one-third benchmark. Reporting indicates that major parties have fielded a limited number of women directly and continue to rely heavily on proportional representation lists to meet constitutional obligations.

The constitution requires that each party’s total parliamentary delegation contain at least one-third women, combining both direct and proportional seats. It does not mandate that one-third of candidates under the FPTP system must be women, and the Election Commission’s call for one-third women candidacy in direct races is a recommendation rather than a binding rule.

Because women’s share of direct candidacies is significantly below 33 percent and parties intend to use proportional lists to compensate, the claim that the requirement has already been met purely through FPTP candidacies is factually incorrect.