Sri Lanka call for more women in new parliament: Ministry

July 07, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Women’s Affairs Ministry called on all political parties to allocate one third of seats in the new parliament for women.

“At the forthcoming General Election all the political parties are urged to ensure that at least 30 percent of candidates they nominate for election are women,” Swarna Sumanasekera, Chairman, National Committee on Women, Ministry of Women’s Affairs said.

“We want well educated women who can contribute to the social and national development of the country’s economy to be nominated and elected into the new parliament,”

“The Ministry also requests the political parties to allocate one third of seats for women even in the National List,”

The percentage of women in the last parliament was 5.8 percent.

This is the lowest rate of representation in parliament for women among South Asian Countries.

Sri Lanka ranks 140 out of 153 countries in female representation in Parliament.