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Women not elected to 49 local bodies in contrast to 16 in 2018
View(s):By Tharushi Weerasinghe
The number of local councils without any women has increased drastically this year when compared with the local government elections of 2018.
The Election Commission confirmed on Friday that early counts showed a total of 49 councils have failed to select a single female. This stands in contrast to 2018, where only 16 councils failed to include women.

Nayana Athukorala contested in Kuruwita
Several local councils failed to elect any women members. Colombo and Kalutara each had one such council, while Kandy recorded three and Nuwara Eliya two. In the Southern Province, two councils, each in Galle and Matara, there were no women.
In the North, four councils in Jaffna, one in Mannar, and three out of the five in Vavuniya had no females. Mullaitivu and Batticaloa each had two councils without women.
Seven councils in Ampara and four in Trincomalee also failed to elect any women. In the North Western and North Central Provinces, one council in Puttalam, three in Anuradhapura, and two in Polonnaruwa had no women councillors.
In Uva Province, three councils in Badulla and two in Monaragala lacked females, while four councils in Ratnapura District in Sabaragamuwa Province also had none.
A legally mandated 25% women’s quota for local councils is undermined by a loophole in Section 65AA, worsened by Sri Lanka’s mixed electoral system of 60% direct ward and 40% proportional representation. The provision allows parties or independent groups that win less than 20% of seats and fewer than three seats in a local authority to bypass the quota.
“In 2018, 1,926 out of 8,719 candidates were women, and it was historic progress,” acknowledged Manjula Gajanayake, executive director of the Institute for Democratic Reforms and Electoral Studies. Still, he warned against complacency. “We can’t be satisfied with just putting numbers on paper.”
According to Mr Gajanayake, the first barrier is conceptual, a shift in mindset.
“There’s a social stigma around women in politics. It’s seen as an NGO-driven, pro-Western concept,” he said. “We need a change in how this is understood, and my strong recommendation is to increase women’s presence in political bureaus, nomination boards, and other critical party structures.”
He also flagged the lack of financial support for women candidates.
“In other countries, there are specific funds to support female political participation. Here, political parties actively discriminate when it comes to campaign financing,” he said, adding that support must be institutionalised within party frameworks.
Mr. Gajanayake criticised the Women’s Affairs and Provincial Councils Ministries for failing to empower women, saying even dedicated training units remain inactive.
He added that the problem also lies with party leadership. “Party secretaries are extremely powerful. The nomination lists are essentially their wish lists.”
Some candidates agreed that the most resistance to their participation came from within the party. “My area organiser was unhappy with who I decided to canvas for during the Parliamentary elections, so he refused to add me to the nominations,” said Nayana Athukorala, who contested in Kuruwita. She was also a member of the Kuruwita Municipal Council in 2018 and had worked for one of the main opposition parties for a considerable time.
Being refused despite being in politics for more than a decade and with multiple diplomas, resulted in Ms. Athukorala breaking away from the main party and running independently.
“I received so much harassment from my previous party when I did that, they went as far as mentioning me on their stages and making gender discriminatory remarks.” She nonetheless managed to secure two seats for her group and now has a seat in the council independently.
For other candidates, social stereotypes proved to be a challenge. “I had a lot of support inside the party, but my biggest challenge was that people from my contesting area did not think women could lead,” said Surekha Samarasena, another candidate who contested at the LG polls from another party.
“We live in a patriarchal society where many people, especially in more rural areas, think politics is just for men.” She claimed that more people avoided leaflets with women on them during their canvassing. “The social cohesion and changes have not evolved with the legalities.” Chathurani Sathsarani, who had contested and won in the Nugape Division, noted that being a young woman meant her presence ticked off two boxes for the quotas in one go. “My family is politically involved with the party, so they offered me this seat and facilitated my campaigns,” she noted.
Ms. Sathsarani noted that “everything was organised” and that all she had to do was “come and speak”. “I received training on the issues of the area and security along with etiquette training.”
“All we are permitted to do is facilitate the election, but these are issues we have worked on for years,” said Commissioner General of Elections Saman Sri Ratnayake, explaining that the structural flaws in the system have long been evident.
He pointed out that the existing formula, unchanged since the last local government election, magnifies the loophole when multiple parties contest. “When the seats get split among many, the loophole gets enlarged,” he explained.
The law says if a party wins fewer than three seats, they are exempted from the 25% women’s quota. “That ends up pushing the burden onto the second-place party, and some just don’t have enough women candidates.”
Mr. Ratnayake also flagged that there’s no meaningful threshold to qualify for a seat, making it easy for small parties to gain representation, but also be eligible for the 65AA loophole due to numbers.
“Earlier, the cutoff was 12%. It was reduced to 5% in parliamentary elections, but at the local level, there’s nothing. Anyone who meets the bare minimum gets in,” he said, adding that a stronger minimum threshold could have helped prevent this issue.
“We advised parties to prioritise women, even when only fielding one or two candidates, but we can’t enforce it,” he said. In some cases, he observed, parties field women just to tick the box.
“There’s a backwards mentality that if there’s a chance that the number of women might exceed the quota, they take it for granted.” Mr. Ratnayake noted that this year, when the commission asked parties with fewer seats to nominate more women, some insisted that “the other party has so we don’t have to”.
He confirmed that proportionally more councils in the North and East haven’t met the quota. “We’ve proposed changes before, too, and they were not followed through, but in the next three to four years, we’ll push for legal reforms.”
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