Elected LG Members to Be Gazetted On March 3

The Election Commission will issue the Gazette containing the list of members in each Local Government body on March 3, Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said.

He said Deputy and Assistant Commissioners in their capacity as the returning officers yesterday sent letters to the General Secretaries of the political parties and Leaders of Independent Groups informing the number of members they should appoint for each of the LG body.

Addressing a press conference at the Elections Secretariat in Rajagiriya, Deshapriya said the Commission had requested the list of members at the latest by March 2. He explained even candidates who had lost their seats could be appointed through the list.

The Chairman said adhering to 25 percent quota to female representation is difficult in about 10 LG bodies including Manmuneipattu in Batticaloa

 where all the elected candidates are men. “In such occasions, we cannot force the parties to stick to 25 percent quota for women, but in the letter we encouraged them to include more women from the list. Some women organizations and people criticised me stating that I try to reduce female representation, but that was not true,” he added. However, he pointed out 535 female candidates have been able to win their respective seats. “We have elected 5,075 male candidates and 535 female candidates from the First-Past-the-Post system. As a percentage this is more than 10 percent. Against the 1.9 percent female representation prevailed at the LG bodies previously, this is a significant achievement,” he noted.

He said overhangs were there in 196 out of 340 LG bodies increasing the total number of members by 364 from 8,325 to 8,689. He said the letters also indicated that any party or independent group which had obtained 50 percent or more in a council could appoint a member of their party or group as the Head. “I foresaw some of the problems currently being experienced. When I pointed them out at meetings the authorities told me that I was looking at extremes,” he noted.

Courtesy : dailynews.lk