To contest is difficult; allocate one third national list positions to women - Paba
The suggestion made by the state Minister Rosy Senanayake to have a 30 percent representation
of women in Parliament is not practical was stated by another former Member of Parliament Upeksha Swarnamali of Paba fame. As an alternative what needs to be done is to allocate30% from the National list to women to represent Parliament as it is difficult proposition to contest and win a seat in Parliament for women.The Member of Parliament Upeksha Swarnamali had aired her views on this issue while having a discussion with the BBC’s Sandeshaya programme.
She had said it is regrettable unlike in a country like Pakistan where the majority of the population are women a quota had been made available, Sri Lanka there had been no incentive made for women on this issue. She had drawn attention to the fact that when the names of persons of the National lists of the main parties United National Party, United Peoples Freedom Alliance and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna were scrutinized only five females have been nominated. This number is out of 87 names nominated by the three main parties contesting..JVP has nominated 03 while the UNP 02 females.
She had said that this position cannot be accepted by any means and had said for the Gampaha district six female candidates have been offered to contest from the United Peoples Freedom Alliance but she was not aware how many are contesting from island wide.