São Tomé Elects 18 Women, Four Seats Short of 40% Parliamentary Benchmark

Women won 18 of the 55 seats in São Tomé and Príncipe's 2026 parliamentary election, more than double the eight elected in 2022, according to a November 6 report by local news agency STP-Press citing a new United Nations Development Programme assessment.

The figure puts women at 32.7% of the National Assembly. That is a substantial increase, but it is four seats short of the 22 seats needed to reach 40% of a 55-member chamber.

The 40% comparison comes from the National Assembly's own description of a parity law adopted in 2022. In an official account of its meeting with UNDP representatives ahead of the September legislative election, the Assembly said the law established a minimum 40% representation of each gender in central and regional government, parliament and public-administration leadership. The parliamentary statement also described work to support women's participation in the election.

The final election results were validated by the Constitutional Court on October 6, according to the UNDP account reported by STP-Press. The local agency said the 18 elected women came from the country's six districts and the autonomous region of Príncipe, across several parties. Its report described the figures as elected seats, not a guarantee that every named candidate would continue serving throughout the parliamentary term.

There is an important legal distinction: a numerical shortfall in the number of women elected does not, by itself, prove that a party, election authority or government breached the parity law. Whether the statute's enforceable requirements attach to candidate lists, allocation of seats, the composition of the seated chamber or some combination requires examination of the enacted legal text and any relevant court rulings. Those documents were not independently established for this report.

The political change is nonetheless measurable. Women's share of elected seats rose from eight of 55 in 2022 to 18 of 55 in 2026, while the 40% parliamentary benchmark described by the Assembly remains above the new result. The next documentary checks are the final court-certified list of elected members, any substitutions after the election and the official parity-law provisions and implementation decisions.