{"id":55878,"date":"2017-10-14T20:07:30","date_gmt":"2017-10-15T00:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55878"},"modified":"2017-10-14T20:07:30","modified_gmt":"2017-10-15T00:07:30","slug":"political-parties-face-challenge-in-selecting-suitable-women-candidates-to-meet-25-women-representation-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55878","title":{"rendered":"Political Parties Face Challenge in Selecting Suitable Women Candidates to Meet 25 % Women Representation Rule."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chrishanthi Christopher<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Local Authority Elections Amendment Act (LAEAA) passed in Parliament in August, requires 25% of women representation in the 335 Councils at the forthcoming elections in January 2018.<\/p>\n

The Parties said they are frantically searching for the right women candidates to represent their Parties.<\/p>\n

Under the LAEAA, it is mandatory that Nomination Lists of Parties have 25% women representation. Lists with lesser numbers will be rejected in total by the Elections Commissioner.<\/p>\n

The new system permits Parties to appoint 60% candidates on direct voting and 40% by the proportional representation (PR) system.<\/p>\n

If sufficient women fail to win, Parties will be called on to appoint women candidates from their list to make up for the 25% representation in the Council. All votes received by the Parties in a Council is counted and candidates will be appointed under the PR system.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Leading Parties said they are in the process of selecting their women candidates. While many Parties were positive saying they will not face many issues selecting the right candidates, others were pessimistic, saying the Sri Lankan culture will prevent them from getting sufficient numbers.<\/p>\n

Senior Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) member and Minister of Science, Technology and Research, Susil Premajayantha said that appointing women to wards will not be an issue. He said his party has advised all district organisers and notices have been issued on the new requirement of 25% women representation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no issues, within two weeks we will be ready with our list,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In terms of fund mobilization, he said the candidates have to find their own campaign funds. \u201cThe party will cover the general expenses related to the elections,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, he said the Local Council Elections will not be expensive, as they have to cover only around 1,000 to 3,000 households. They can cover them by visiting homes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, United National Party (UNP) organizer Daya Gamage said they will be selecting candidates from the over a million Lak Vanitha Society members from 10,000 societies islandwide.<\/p>\n

He said that increasing women representation was the brainchild of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and that, they are happy about it. \u201cThey have equal rights to participate in politics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) member M.A. Sumanthiran said their Party is in the process of selecting women candidate to contest. \u201cThe law requires it and we will fall in line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working with several of them and, if the numbers are insufficient, we will select them from the women cooperatives and organisations they lead. The focus will be on getting young people into the forum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With regard to fund mobilization for candidates he said the TNA does not spend money on election campaigns, unless the circumstances call for it. \u201cIf candidates want to spend their monies they can do so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), MP Vijitha Herath said that selecting women candidates to represent the Party will be a challenge. He said Sri Lanka\u2019s sociocultural situation is not conducive for women to take leadership in politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe women in Sri Lanka are seen as persons managing the home-front, procreating and rearing kids which prevent them from holding key positions in politics. To change all this, we need an attitudinal change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The suitability criteria will be educational qualifications, social ability and candidates\u2019 personality. We are doing a lot of awareness programmes among the women to persuade them to join in. We do not allocate any money for the campaigns for we do not spend monies on propaganda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the women politicians already in the fray, expressed cautious elation at the turn of events.<\/p>\n

SLFP MP Sudharshini Fernandopulle from the Gampaha District said, \u201cAlthough it is a victory for women, the 25% representation was inadequate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConsidering our population, where we hold an equal number or, even more, our representation in politics is very low,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, this Govt has taken notice of the poor numbers and taken the right step. This is a step forward, but we need to move further up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She played down the theory that the Sri Lankan culture is dampening the women\u2019s spirit to come into politics, saying it is \u2018gender discrepancy\u2019 that is barring women. \u201cThey need confidence and have to be empowered,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) MP Sriyani Wijewickrema said women should be allowed to contest in their own right.<\/p>\n

She said that women do not need charity to participate in politics, but should be given the chance to fight in their own right.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder PR, the women will be granted 25% of seats in the Council, whether they win or not. This has to change. Let us fight independently,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Sunday Times<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chrishanthi Christopher The Local Authority Elections Amendment Act (LAEAA) passed in Parliament in August, requires 25% of women representation in the 335 Councils at the forthcoming elections in January 2018. The Parties said they are frantically searching for the right women candidates to represent their Parties. Under the LAEAA, it is mandatory that Nomination …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Political Parties Face Challenge in Selecting Suitable Women Candidates to Meet 25 % Women Representation Rule.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55878"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55879,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55878\/revisions\/55879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}