Two flaws will defeat promised women’s quota in LG: Verité Research

Tuesday, 6 May 2025 02:34 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The 25% quota for women in local authority elections, introduced in 2017 to improve women’s representation, is likely to be defeated by two flaws in implementation, Verité Research notes.

First, parties and independent groups that receive less than 20% of the total votes in a local authority area are not required to meet the women’s quota.

Second, direct ward (DW) seats account for 60% and proportional representation (PR) seats account for 40% of appointments. The law requires only one-tenth of the larger number of DW seat nominations to be women, and half the smaller number of PR seat nomination to be women.

The continued effect of these two flaws will ensure that the number of women candidates elected to local government authorities at the upcoming Local Government election 2025, will fall well short of the 25% quota.

The detailed analysis can be found in the following link or by scanning the QR code below: https://www.ft.lk/opinion/Women-s-quota-in-local-authority-elections--Outcomes-will-fail-the-promise/14-649106.