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| Sunday, 15 February 2004 |
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Politics |  |
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Call for 30 p.c. women candidates The National Committee on Women (NCW), the country's national body on women's issues, wants all political parties contesting the forthcoming general election to ensure that a minimum of 30 per cent of their candidates are women. A special meeting of the NCW on Friday passed the following resolution: "The National Committee on Women strongly urges all political parties in Sri Lanka contesting the General Election to be held on April 2 to ensure that a minimum of 30 per cent of the candidates be women. The committee also strongly recommends that a minimum of 30 per cent of those nominated to the National List be women". A committee media release issued by NCW Chairperson Indrani Iriyagolle said: "The provisions in the Women's Charter of 1993 as well as the National Plan of Action for Women stresses the importance of women's participation in the political arena". Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Women's NGO Forum has also strongly urged all political parties to include a minimum of 30 per cent women in the nomination lists submitted for the General Elections in April 2004. The Sri Lankan record for women's representation in political and decision making processes is the worst in South Asia. For a country which declares itself to be a Socialist Democratic State, which is placed at a high level by the UNDP in its Human Development Indicator Measurement, it is unacceptable that throughout the 55 years of independence, women have comprised less than five per cent at all levels of government - local government, provincial councils and Parliament, states a press release issued by the forum. It further states that the representation of women in Parliamentary politics has been abysmal although they have been actively involved in social and political work and movements in this country, including the independence movement. Women's political representation has always been stymied at the level of nominations by political party hierarchies, often controlled almost exclusively by men. For example, in the General Elections of 2000, only 2.3 per cent of total candidates were women. Not a single woman has been nominated by the TULF in the history of parliamentary elections in this country while most political parties have rarely included women in their national lists: where a few women have been nominated on to National Lists, even fewer women have been appointed to Parliament. The press release points out that women's representation in political and decision making is a specific area which has been included in the National platform for action formulated by the Sri Lanka Ministry of Women's Affairs. |
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