Paraguay has some of the lowest numbers in Latin America when it comes to women in public office.

On Wednesday, Sept. 7, during a session of its Permanent Congress, Organization of American States (OAS) made recommendations within its final report of an observation mission that followed Paraguay's municipal elections in 2021.

This report recommends to the Government of Paraguay to "guarantee the parity conformation of the lists of candidates" to the Congress.

It also suggests "introducing a double preferential vote" so that voters can choose between a female or male candidate, if the country maintains its open list system.

Currently, the Paraguayan Parliament is 16.3% women, below the regional average of 32.9%, said Juan Pablo Corlazzoli, head of the OAS electoral mission in Paraguay, at the presentation of the report.

The mission saw that in addition to the lack of gender parity, the country was asked to evaluate the risks of electronic voting, which was introduced in the municipal elections. It was also suggested to impose a spending limit on political campaigns. 

Raúl Martínez, Paraguay's ambassador to the OAS, said that he will take into account the suggestions of this report in order to "improve." However, he emphasized that "in the electoral world there is no single form that can be established as obligatory for all countries."

The municipal elections should have been held in 2020, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a victory for the ruling Colorado Party, with mayors in 163 districts, to 62 for the Liberal Party.

The rest of the 261 districts were distributed among five minority parties (6), alliances (22) and movements (8), according to official data.