Sri Lanka has more female than male voters, but no female presidential candidates

COLOMBIA – More than half of Sri Lanka’s voters are women, but not a single one of them will appear on the ballot in Saturday’s presidential election.

The island nation of more than 22 million people is electing a president to boost its economy after it endured an unprecedented financial crisis two years ago that led to the ouster of its leader. The election will allow more than 17 million eligible voters to choose from a record 38 candidates. However, women – who make up nearly 9 million voters – will not be represented.

“I am a little disappointed,” said first-time voter Sandami Nimesha.

Nimesha, a 20-year-old information technology student, said that while presidents have a duty to offer solutions to the problems of the people, regardless of their gender, a female president would “pay more attention to women voters” and focus on the issues that concern them.

“I think it’s better if there is a female candidate,” she said.

Saturday's election is seen as a three-way race between current President Ranil Wickremesinghe, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and parliamentarian Anura Dissanayake, who leads a Marxist-led coalition that has gained popularity. The results of the election are expected on Sunday.

Since the island nation introduced universal suffrage in 1931, Sri Lanka's politics have been overwhelmingly dominated by men. This trend is evident in most countries around the world – in 2023, an analysis by the Pew Research Center found that only 13 of the 193 member states of the United Nations had a woman at the head of government.

Certainly, women have held some important positions in the Sri Lankan government in the past.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for nearly five years from 1960. Although her political rise was forced by the assassination of her husband, the Prime Minister, she was the first woman in the world to be elected Prime Minister and held the office twice more. Her younger daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga later became the country's first and only female President, holding the office from 1994 to 2005.

Both women came from families with a political tradition. But even Sri Lankan women with a political background tend to enter politics only after their male relatives, in most cases their husbands, have died or been murdered – especially during the brutal civil war that began in 1983 and ended in 2009.

In a country that passed a law in 2016 requiring local councils to be made up of at least 25 percent women – a move widely seen as progress in promoting gender equality – many believe there should now be more parity in politics.

Women's rights activist Sepali Kottegoda said the lack of female presidential candidates was emblematic of the patriarchal structures deeply rooted in Sri Lankan politics.

“The major political parties are so male-dominated, and there are so many men in power at the top, that they do not see fit to step aside and allow female party members access to the ballot box,” she said.

Kottegoda, founder of the Colombo-based Women and Media Collective, was among those who pushed for the introduction of a 25 percent quota for women in local councils.

“We felt that opening the doors to women in local councils was a way for them to work their way up,” Kottegoda said.

Now her organization is striving for a similar quota of women in the 255-member parliament, where their share is only 5.3 percent.

In 2019, academic and scientist Ajantha Perera became the first woman to run for president in 20 years, losing to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was ousted in 2022 after angry protesters blamed his government for the unprecedented economic crisis.

Although Perera regrets the absence of women in Saturday's election, she hopes that a strong female candidate will run for president in the future.

“I firmly believe this could make a difference,” she said.