An Appeal for Women to be Appointed from the National List

Dear Prime Minister

We, the undersigned welcome the new UNFGG government elected to parliament on 17th August 2015 and its commitment to continue Sri Lanka’s democratic political transformation.  We wish your government all success in this endeavour.

We are however deeply concerned that the representation of women in parliament has reduced from thirteen to eleven women members.  In the UNP, the number of elected women stands at 6.  This is the best performance at this election.  However we believe that the reduction of the numbers of women elected to Parliament has to be attributed to the difficulties women face in running an election campaign under the current Proportional Representation (PR) and the prevailing political culture that continues to prefer men over women and do not recognise their substantial contribution to local and national politics. This is an appeal to redress this imbalance through your power to appoint national list members. 

In appointing women through the national list, we appeal that the new government gives consideration to those who have a proven track record of working for issues of social justice and national development. We also appeal to the government to give due consideration to women who may have lost the election due to intense competition under the PR system but have demonstrated political leadership including working for women's rights. We wish you will consider women who have worked for the party consistently while in opposition and women who have entered politics in their own right.

In the weeks and months to come, we hope that the new government will treat the issue of under representation of women in all elected political institutions in Sri Lanka as a matter of critical import which must be addressed through affirmative action.

Thank you.