The nomination papers filed by political parties vying for the upcoming election will be rejected if the minimum number of female candidates is not maintained, in keeping with the new amended Local Authorities Elections Act, Elections Deputy Commissioner M.M. Mohamed said. He said Section 28 (2) (a) of the Act specifies the mandatory number of women candidates a party should have in its nomination list.
“To ensure that the numbers are not confusing, the Elections Commission has specified the exact number of female candidates to be entered in the nominations list, for each local government body,” he said. According to the Amended Local Authorities Elections Act, 2017, women members of the LG body must constitute 25 percent of the total number of members. The nominations lists are, therefore, required to include a minimum of 10 percent women candidates in the first list and 50 percent women candidates in the supplementary list. The contesting parties and Independent groups must submit two nomination lists for the election under the new system.
The first list of nominations will ‘elect’ members under the wards system (60 percent) and the supplementary list will be used to ‘select’ members under the Proportional Representation.
For example, the Dehiwala–Mt.Lavinia Municipal Council needs to appoint 12 female members for its 51 member council at the conclusion of the election.