Elections Act. The letter states that the Sri Lankan local authority elections has triggered the process of meeting the legally mandated 25% quota for women in seat allocations. Despite a low voter turnout, women were visibly active in all aspects of the electoral process—campaigning, voting, contesting, and featuring on reserve lists. Many experienced women from previous local councils chose to contest, either through party endorsement or independently when denied nominations. This election marks a promising increase in women securing votes and re-entering or entering local politics. However, the fragmentation of seats—with many small parties securing only one or two seats—has made fulfilling the ‘one woman for every three seats’ requirement more complex. Past trends show reluctance from parties to nominate women, even when the threshold is met, and in previous elections, some local authorities failed to meet the 25% quota entirely, citing ‘hang seats’ as justification.
Shreen Abdul Saroor, women’s rights activist and Co-founder of Mannar Women’s Development Federation remarked, “Prior to 2018, women’s representation in local authority elections was only around 2%. During the previous elections, it was increased to 21.8% but there were councils with no female representation despite the EC mandate which says that every council including municipal and urban councils, should have 25% women representation. Ideally, the EC should have insisted that in every local council, there should be 25% women. The EC can now ask the majority party forming the government to be more flexible and have more women, since the Act itself states that every third seat should be given to a woman. However, this has become rather complicated because there are a few independent parties which have secured only one or two seats. Most likely, they will not give women a seat. Moreover, there is another issue concerning ‘hang seats’. Some local authorities say that they don’t nominate anyone from the preferential list citing these hang seats, but only here, are women’s representation 50%. It is truly tragic because the women who have been nominated were deliberately put into parties which they were certain won’t win. So, they simply included these women because it is mandatory to have 10% female nominees. The number of local authority seats has almost doubled since 2017 after the quota was introduced, it’s currently around 8,700 seats. These additional seats were given due to the women’s quota, and yet, they are unjustly secured by men,” she concluded, while emphasising that the EC is legally and ethically bound to incorporate the decisions and experiences of women in this male dominated political landscape in order to establish a democratic and inclusive governing system.
The letter further states that according to the 2017 amendment to the Local Authorities Elections Act, the EC is legally obligated to ensure the 25% women’s quota is fulfilled. This includes using the proportional representation list to compensate for women not elected via the first-past-the-post system. The EC must strictly enforce compliance, ensuring that every local council includes at least 25% women, including young women. In cases where a party secures two seats, the EC can and should insist that at least one be allocated to a woman. Political parties that fulfill the quota should be publicly acknowledged, while those that fail to comply should be held accountable. Ultimately, it is the EC’s duty to enforce the women’s quota and uphold gender representation in local governance.
This letter is endorsed by 34 women’s rights organizations, collectives and movements including the Rural Development Foundation, Stand Up Movement Lanka, Women’s Action Network and Sisterhood Initiative.
