Lanka Women

June 2, 2009, Sri Lanka Institute of Local Governance Auditorium: At a meeting well-attended by 17 women political leaders and others and graced by Hon Dinesh Gunawardena, Minister and Chairman of the Select Committee of Parliament on Electoral Reforms and others, we were able to decide on the specifics of our demand for a quota for women in nominations to local government elections.  We also decided to carry out a comprehensive lobbying effort in this regard.

The meeting was attended by 18 elected members (17 females and one male) representing 9 Pradeshiya Sabhas, 1 Municipal Council, 4 Urban Councils and the Western Provincial Councils; 2 Samurdhi Officers, and others (See list below).

Mr.  Gunawardena graciously accepted our invitation to elaborate on the political representation for women in the context of the proposed amendments to the local government elections ordinance. The discussion with the Minister was cordial and enlightening. He explained that the proposed system is a mix of first-past-the-post system (FPP) of the past with wards and all, and a proportional representation (PR) component.  Importantly, he said that their committee is considering an addendum to the bill that stipulates  that in order to qualify for the proportional representation component of the seats in a given local government unit, each party has to demonstrate that there is at least one woman in the slate of candidates nominated by a party for a given local government unit. While agreeing that the committee’s efforts are in the right direction, all participants were of the strong opinion that we need to have a specific percentage stipulated.

The discussions with the minister were followed by a strategy session where it was unanimously concluded that the Proposed bill to amend the local government elections should stipulate that, in order to qualify for the proportional representation component of the seats in a given local government unit, each party has to demonstrate that at least 25% of the nominees put forward by that party are women. We should highlight that this request is in regard to election of representatives to local government units where women already are active as leaders in their communities and that the Mahinda Chinthanya manifesto of the President too stipulates a 25% quota for women candidates on local and provincial elections..

We decided on the following strategies as well.

1.      Lobby the policymakers ((Minister for Public  Administration, Minister for Women’s Empowerment, Speaker, Opposition Leader, Select Committee of the Parliament on Election Reforms and other Ministers and MPs) requesting that the:

3.      Collect 100,000 -300,000 signatures in support of item 1 using the following channels:

a.     Political leaders from each of the local government units

b.    Samurdhi leaders (Reached through the Samurdhi Authority)

c.     Women’s Development Officers in each of DSS units (through Ministry of women’s affairs)

4.      Media Campaign

a.     Press conference

b.    Do at least one signature campaign, traveling from town to town in a vehicle with loudspeakers and banners etc (Mr. Sampath Perera, Beruwela Urban Council member has volunteered Beruwela as a venue). Invite media Press conference

c.     Exposure through other media events

ATTENDEES

Council members

Others

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