• Six from SLPP
• Two from SJB
• Three from National Lists

By Sarah Hannan

Female representation in the Ninth Parliament of Sri Lanka stands at 11 MPs so far. There were 12 female MPs in the previous Parliament. Eight female representatives were elected out of the 212 seats that were allocated for contestants at the recently concluded general election while three have entered Parliament through National Lists so far. Out of the eight female candidates that were voted in, six female members of Parliament were elected from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) while two were elected from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB). The SLPP further alloted two slots on its National List to female candidates while the SJB alotted one. Out of the 212 seats that were allocated for candidates that contested this time, the eight female candidates that got elected represent 3.77% of the Ninth Parliament. The Ratnapura District elected three female representatives while the Gampaha District elected two female representatives, with the Kegalle, Galle, and Matale Districts electing one female representative each. Pavithra Devi Wanniarachchi from the Ratnapura District, who contested from the SLPP, garnered the highest amount of preferential votes for the district that she represented, with 200,977 votes.

Name	District	Political Party	Number of votes
Pavithra Devi Wanniarachchi	Rathnapura	SLPP	200,977
Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle	Gampaha	SLPP	89,329
Kokila Harshani Gunawardhana	Gampaha	SLPP	77,922
Rajika Wickramasinghe	Kegalle	SLPP	68,802
Muditha Prishanthi De Soysa	Rathnapura	SLPP	65,923
Geetha Kumarasinghe	Galle	SLPP	63,357
Thalataha Athukorala	Rathnapura	SJB	45,105
Rohini Wijeratne Kavirathne	Matale	SJB	27,587