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Sri Lanka elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected by popular vote for a six year term by the people.

The Parliament has 225 members, elected for a six year term, 196 members elected in multi-seat constituencies through proportional representation system where each party is allocated a number of seats from the quota for each district according to the proportion of the total vote that party obtains in the district. The other 29 which is called the national list are appointed by each party secretary according to the island wide proportional vote the party obtains.

14,088,500 Voters will be casting their votes at 11,098 polling station on 26th January 2010 from 7.00 am to 4.00 pm. To read further please visit Department of Election, Sri Lanka.

We invite individuals and other organizations from Sri Lanka working in the area of promoting women in politics to share their views, agenda for the political parties and campaigns on iKNOW Politics.

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In South Asia, the concept of power and authority are ascribed to certain social characteristics determined by the male privileged groups to exclude women. Women normally are not given the opportunity to hold positions of power in politics. Being powerless and marginalized women in South Asian society are at great disadvantage and experience injustice in inclusion and in the political domain. Gender based violence discourages women from actively participating in politics. Violence against women in politics (VAWIP) is an issue of concern. Almost all forms of gender based violence are used as tools for harming women through physical, psychological or social intimidation.

Gender sensitive laws, policies and provisions are currently absent in South Asian countries. Most of the National laws are silent about VAWIP and political violence is dealt with under criminal law. There seem to be no specific plans and actions to address the issues of VAWIP. Without appropriate laws, policies, provisions and mechanisms, it is not possible to address VAWIP. Violence against women in politics has not been discussed in most of the International Instruments including CEDAW. Even the SAARC gender data base has ignored violence against women in politics. Since most of the international instruments do not have explicit provisions to create a gender sensitive, safe and secure space for women to participate actively in politics, it is imperative to harmonize the existing international instruments to be adapted at the national level. Therefore, SAP International is attempting to build a policy influencing process for the incorporation of VAWIP agendas in the gender sensitive international instruments and mechanisms as well as in national legal provisions and mechanisms in South Asia.