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Saturday, 27 January 2018 00:51 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Skandha Gunasekara
Civil Rights groups yesterday said that although 25% female representation had been made mandatory constitutionally for the new local government electoral system, women still faced an array of challenges when entering politics and governing.
The Women and Media Collective (WMC) pointed out that although a majority of the seats under the first-past-the-post system were contested via ward, only a fraction of the seats were open to women.
“Even though 60% of the seats under the first-past-the-post system are contested through a war, only 10% of these seats are open to women. Here too women have to depend on the men to put them on the ward list. We have found that most parties have put their female candidates onto the second or proportional representation list,” WMC Programmes and Research Technical Advisor Kumudini Samuel said at a press briefing yesterday.
Calling for more regulated methods of appointing women to Local Government, WMC Women’s Economic Rights and Media Technical Advisor Sepali Kottegoda said that capable and competent women were being overlooked when giving nominations to relations of politicians.
“Across several districts we have found that competent women were not being given nominations so that the wives and other relations of politicians could contest. We have also found that women who had served the community for decades with a solid social standing were being overlooked for younger and less capable women who were unfamiliar to voters in the area. This could be a ruse to undermine the 25% representation system by fielding female candidates more likely to lose,” she said.
Women’s Resources Center in Kurunegala Coordinator Sumika Perera charged that in the Kurunegala District, nominations were being given according to caste. “Female candidate were picked according to their caste, not on merit. It did not matter if the candidate had served the community or had any leadership skills,” Perera said.
Meanwhile, Shreen Saroor of the Women’s Action Group said that instances of female candidate intimidation were rife in the North and Eastern provinces.
“Video clips of Muslim clerics such as moulavi Niyas Siddiqi Siraj verbally attacking Muslim women candidates and their family members in a disgusting manner for their recent campaign speeches in Puttalam have gone viral on social media,” she said.
She said that despite making 25% female representation at the local government mandatory, there was not a viable environment for female candidates to contest elections.
“We have not set up enough structures and mechanisms to safeguard female candidates. There isn’t a level playing field for women entering politics,” she said, adding that apart from verbal abuse, there had been many incidents of female candidates being assaulted and kidnapped.
She went on to criticise both the Police and the Elections Commission for failing to take measures to ensure a free and fair election for female candidates.
“Even the Elections Commission doesn’t have adequate female representation. All the elections commissioners are male and there is only one female among the assistant commissioners. The Police too are not trained and coached for such an election with so many women contesting. They laugh at women who come to lodge complaints for being verbally harassed. Both the Elections Commission and the Police generalise gender-based violence as normal election-related violence.
The WMC, which has been pushing for the quota system for the past 20 years, thanked the Prime Minister for introducing it.
“We will now press for a quota system for Parliament and Provincial Council elections, said Samuel.
“The quota system is legally binding but the spirit of the quota will depend on how much the men are willing to let go of their political privilege and power,” Samuel said.
