The April 6 parliamentary election in Hungary won't just halve the number of deputies to 200, it will also likely see the percentage of women drop in national politics, according to a survey.

The number of women in parliament will likely drop slightly further from the current 9% level, according to think-tank Nézőpont Intézet.

With only 32 female MPs out of the 386 in total in the outgoing legislature, Hungary has the lowest female participation in lawmaking in the European Union, and is at the same level as in Congo and Pakistan.

The ratio has been gradually decreasing from a peak in 1980 when almost a third of representatives were female in Hungary. This compares to 20% in the Czech Republic, 24% in Poland and around 30% in the European Parliament at present.

Public administration lower down the ladder has a higher proportion of women than the national parliament. Budgetary institutions, including local governments employed altogether 440,000 females, which is 70% of the total workforce there, latest official data from end-2012 show. Some activists have called for quotas to boost the number of women legislators.