More representation for minorities, women mooted in SL parliament

The Sri Lankan government on Thursday said it has proposed an increase in the number of seats in parliament in order to have more representation of the minorities and women, an official said.

Cabinet spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne told journalists in capital Colombo that the proposal had been put forward as part of the 20th amendment to the constitution by President Maithripala Sirisena in a weekly cabinet meeting, Xinhua news agency reported.

Further deliberations on the matter will be done at a meeting next week before it was presented to Parliament, Senaratne added.

"There are 15 items suggested in the 20th amendment to the constitution and the main item includes to increase the number of seats in parliament from 225 to 255. This was not proposed by any request from any political party but to accommodate more minority parties and the small parties in parliament," he said.

Senaratne further said the government hoped to allow more women to be elected to parliament by increasing nominations. The latest set of election reforms also wants to encourage political parties to appoint women to bonus seats in parliament.

The ruling United National Party recently said that all major political parties in the island country have to commit that 50 percent of parliamentarians selected under the National List be women.

"Sri Lanka has many competent, qualified and intelligent women. But even though 52 percent of the population is women, we have a tiny amount of them in parliament. These reforms are the ideal chance to change that," UNP member and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aajith Perera had said.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has stated that parliament would be dissolved and parliamentary elections will be held once the 20th amendment to the constitution was passed in parliament in the coming weeks.