News
21 female lawmakers secure place in national political history
View(s):By Tharushi Weerasinghe
This week’s general elections marked the highest number of women elected to Sri Lanka’s parliament.
Twenty-one women, excluding national list candidates, were elected from 14 districts — a sharp increase from 13, including national list candidates, who were in parliament following the 2020 general elections. Only 60 women in total have ever been in parliament in Sri Lanka until this point.
The new pool also has female representatives from the Tamil community, a shift from the representation in the 2020 parliament. For the first time in Sri Lanka’s history female representation exceeds 10% of those elected. 
In the pool of female representatives are seasoned politicians like Prime Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya and Rohini Kaviratne and newcomers like Dr Kaushalya Ariyarathne. The group includes many community organisers who have been working on grassroots-level issues for decades, like Samanmalee Gunasinghe. The group consists of lawyers, teachers, community workers, business owners and party officials along with career politicians.
Of the 21 women elected, 19 are from the NPP. Two, Rohini Kaviratne and Chamindranee Kiriella, are from the SJB.
In a first for the plantation community, the NPP’s Krishnan Kaleychelvi from Nuwara Eliya, Ambika Samuel from Badulla, and also Saroja Savitri Paulraj from Matara have made history as the first women parliamentarians from the estates of Sri Lanka.
Ms Samuel is also the first Tamil woman to win a seat from Badulla and rose to popularity because of her activism against tea estate owners and for highlighting the plight of communities in plantations. Ms Paulraj is the first Tamil woman to win a seat in Matara.
PM Amarasuriya made history by momentarily holding the highest number of preferential votes a candidate has won in Sri Lanka’s electoral history with 655,289 votes in Colombo. Her record was later surpassed by Vijitha Herath who secured 716,715 votes in Gampaha. Dr Amarasuriya holds the record for the highest preferential votes in Colombo and the highest by a woman.
The complete list of female representatives: Dr Harini Amarasuriya, Dr Kaushalya Ariyarathna, and Samanmalee Gunasinghe for Colombo, Hemali Weerasekara for Gampaha, Oshani Umanga, and Nilanthi Kottahachchi for Kalutara, Thushari Jayasinghe, and Chamindranee Kiriella for Kandy, Deepthi Wasalage, and Rohini Kaviratne for Matale, Krishnan Kaleychelvi, and Anushka Thilakaratna for Nuwara Eliya, Hasara Liyanage for Galle, Saroja Paulraj for Matara, Muthu Rathwatte for Digamadulla, Geetha Herath for Kurunegala, Hiruni Wijesinghe for Puttalam, Ambika Samuel for Badulla, Chathuri Gangani for Monaragala, Nilusha Gamage for Ratnapura, and Sagarika Athauda for Kegalle.
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