Women and the Proposed Amendments to Elections Ordinance
At our meeting on the 12th attended by group 8 representing professionals (3), women’s groups (4), and women political leaders (1) we got to study the 2007 Interim Report of the Parliamentary Committee on Elections and we more or less agreed that:
“Overall, the committee’s proposals regarding elections seem to be an improvement to the existing system. Therefore, it is expedient to present women’s representation issues within the committee’s proposals. Recent provincial council elections show that women can win elections if given the opportunity, but few get the opportunity. Therefore we should lobby for regulations stipulating a quota for women in the nomination lists put up by the political parties. Our lobbying effort should be led by women active in politics with professionals and women’s groups supporting.”
What are the proposed amendments?
Dr. Sudantha Liyange who has been closely following the proceedings of the Parliamentary Committee on Election Reforms kindly walked us through the interim report of the parliamentary special committee on electoral reforms. Essentially, the proposed election process is a mix of the (a) PR (proportional representation) system that elects a slate of representatives for a district and (b) FPP (first-past-post) system that elects representative for each electorate within a district.
In the purely PR model that applies now, the smaller electoral divisions have no representation. In the proposed mix model a voter gets to choose his/her representatives for the electorate in which he/she lives from among candidates who live in the same. In addition, for every 7 members so elected, for a district, say, there will be 3 additional members appointed from among the losing candidates according to a proportional representation formula that excludes the votes garnered by the winning candidates.
Past elections show that women cannot get elected under any system if the major parties do not give them the opportunity to contest. Take the case of the recently elections in the western provincial council. In the Gampaha district women did well because the UPFA put 4 women in a slate of 20 and all but one won. The UNP fielded two candidates in a slate of 20 and one won. In contrast, in Kalutara, the UPFA did not include any women in their list the UNP fielded only one with the result that there are no women representatives from Kalutara. JVP and other smaller political parties fielded many women candidates, but to get elected, candidacy in the two major parties is essential.
