Abstract:
Reduce or avoid gender based discrimination and gender issues, equity and high level of
participation are some of key expectations of the power devolution. To fulfil the requirement
of power devolution the Provincial Councils were established in 1987 in according to the
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka. However, from the initial stage of
the Provincial Councils, it shows that fewer number of female representatives were included
in the nomination list and negligible number of females were elected. Major objective of this
study is to examine the present scenario of the female representation in Provincial Council
system and examine factors affecting on less female representation in Provincial Councils.
This study limits to Southern Provincial Council election in 2014. Data collected through
official sources of the Election Commissioner General, questionnaire survey on randomly
selected voters in Gonapeenuwal Divisional Secretariat Division in Galle District and
interviews with randomly selected politicians in Southern Provincial Council. Study results
shows that, 9 percent of the female candidates were include in nomination lists of the number
of parties and contest for the 2014 Provincial Council election in Southern Province.
However, only 1.8 percent (01) female representative was selected as a member of Southern
Provincial Council. As revealed by the field survey, proportional electoral system, political
system, media campaign specially social media campaign, cultural and social barriers and
image of the candidates were negatively influence in female representatives in Southern
Provincial Council election in 2014.
