Vysoké Pole/Suchá Loz - To achieve more gender balanced political representation, the Czech Republic still has a long way to go.

But there are exceptions and one of them is the Zlín Region which nominated a good number of women for the upcoming regional elections to be held in the fall.

The Association of Independent Mayors drafted their ballot where men and women are almost equally represented.

"We have not found a ballot by any other party that would be so gender balanced," says Lenka Bennerová of Forum 50% Association.

Not many people have heard the names of Vysoké Pole and Suchá Loz but the Association of Independent Mayors have made its name in Czech politics some time ago.

The Association was sternly against the 2016 Olympic Games in Prague and launched a battle with Prague Mayor Pavel Bém, striving for a national referendum on the 2016 Olympics.

Read more: Prague is not among Olympic hopefuls for 2016

Almost equal

"We learned there are roughly 120 female mayors and vice-mayors in the Zlín Region, so we approached them and eventually gained their names for our ballot," says Mayor of Vysoké Pole Josef Zícha.

He believes it is helpful to have a lot of women included in the ballot. It makes much more visible.

"Our women complained of not being allowed to influence anything important and that we [men] govern without their help. So we want to give them space," Zícha explains, smiling.

High politics unpopular among women

The Association has a problem, though - they cannot find a female candidate for the Senate election. No local woman seems to be interested. 

"Women appear to lack interest in high politics. I have not been able to convince a single one. Many of them are under 40, others don't want to go to Prague for family reasons. It truly is a problem," Zícha said. 

Despite the men´s support of their women, it will be a man again that will lead the region´s ballot - Petr Gazdík, Mayor of the village of Suchá Loz, near the town of Zlín. But there are at least four women among the first ten candidates.

The neighboring Olomouc region´s ballot has women on the first two positions - a physician from a faculty hospital Eliška Sovová and former rector of Olomouc´s University of Palacký Jana Mačáková. The ballot was drafted by small liberal parties: Party for Open Society (SOS), SNK-European Democrats and Union of Freedom - Democratic Union (US-DEU).

Read more: Women representation in Czech politics stagnates

Big parties rigid

As for the major political parties, only the Greens dared to include a woman in a ballot - Svatava Štěrbová in the Plzeň region in west bohemia while Kateřina Dubská has been nominated in South Moravia region.

In Plzeň, former Health Minister Milada Emmerová will run for the Social Democratic Party (ČSSD).

You can see the village of Suchá Loz´s web site here.