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Free, fair and transparent elections are a prerequisite for the functioning of democracy. In a functioning democracy, the integrity of elections guarantees high citizens’ trust in the democratic system; in a new or fledgling democracy fair and transparent elections help to consolidate the regime. In this article, the authors test whether inclusive parliaments improve the fairness and objectivity of elections. Using data from more than 100 elections, the authors establish through descriptive and inferential statistics that only one of the three indicators of inclusiveness – women’s representation, minority representation and average age – namely women’s representation, significantly improves the fairness and transparency of elections.
