The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) has launched a training course covering all districts to increase the women political representation in the country.
Aspiring women representatives, both quantitatively and qualitatively, especially for Parliament, Provincial Councils and Local Government Institutions, have been trained under this programme.
About 400 women with leadership qualities and a certain public base who engage in politics have applied and an advisory board comprising 12 persons with political experience has selected them for the course.
In two stages, 100 candidates have been selected in a transparent manner. In the first, 261 people have been identified on six criteria and in the second phase, they have been interviewed.
Twelve interview boards consisting of individuals with subject knowledge and practical experience have been appointed and the final group of people has been selected through those boards.
The selection was highly competitive and the majority of candidates for the second round were equally qualified, with 100 candidates having to be selected from political parties, districts and ethnic groups.
Those who were not selected for this course have not been disqualified and they will be taken in for future training courses.
Sixty six students have also been selected for the Sinhala medium while 34 for the Tamil medium.
The inaugural ceremony of the training course will be held on January 19 at 2.30 pm at BMICH under the patronage of Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.
Parliamentary Women’s Forum Members, University Teachers and Civil Society Activists will participate in the inauguration.
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