The Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus will submit proposals in writing to the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on election law reforms to ensure 30-70 percent representation of women at the Parliamentary and Provincial levels within the electoral structure of the country.
It will propose to ensure that the 25 percent quota for women candidates at the Local Government level remains unchanged and to add to the electoral rules that all political parties allocate 50 percent of the national list to women. These suggestions were proposed at the meeting held by the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus chaired by State Minister Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle recently.
The Caucus had also discussed proposals to increase the representation of women in all Commissions and Boards and to provide leadership positions, committee positions, executive positions and committee membership within the hierarchy of the main party structure.
Enactment of adequate legislation to reduce election violence, the imperativeness of all female parliamentarians declaring their assets and liabilities annually, providing women with a definite number of nominations if they wish to change the old preference system were also discussed in detail at the meeting.
It was decided to further discuss the proposals by female parliamentarians and refer it to the Parliamentary Select Committee on election law reforms chaired by Minister Dinesh Gunawardena. State Minister Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle, parliamentarians Rohini Kumari Wijeratne, Geetha Kumarasinghe, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Manjula Dissanayake and Muditha Prashanthi were present.