Thirty percent of women in LG a remarkable achievement-caffe

Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) Executive Director, Keerthi Tennakoon said it was a remarkable achievement for a country such as ours to be able to boast that almost one third of the Local Government representatives appointed were women.

He said political parties and independent groups have appointed 1,991 women to serve in local councils from their additional lists, thus the percentage of female representatives has risen to 29%. Speaking with the Daily Mirror, he said it was only 1% of the women quota in the local government bodies prior to the election.

“The Elections Commission has gazetted a list of 2,526 female local Councillors but only 535 women had won their respective wards during the February 10 Local Government elections. The United National Party (UNP) has appointed most of the female candidates from their list,” Tennakoon said.

“Overall political parties fielded 17,128 female candidates, out of which 535 were able to win their wards.according to the Elections Commission, given that in total 8,721 local Councillors have been appointed, 2,526 amounts to 29% of the total number of women to get into local councils,” he said.

However, he said there were 15 local councils that can’t be established as a result of the lack of a 25% female quota.they are Kotagala, Point Pedro, Mannar, Musali, Weugal, Trincomalee Town and Gravats,thambalagamuwa, Muttur,wanathawilluwa, Karaitivu,thirukkovil and Manmunai Pradeshiya Sabhas and the Trincomalee and Kinniya Urban

Councils.