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

Colombo, May 5 (Daily Mirror) - 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 its implementation, Verité Research said.

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, Verité Research said.

It said, secondly, direct ward (DW) seats account for 60% and proportional representation (PR) seats account for 40% of appointments and 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.

It said 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 elections 2025, will fall well short of the 25% quota.