Joint Opposition does not care about women’s rights – PM

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today charged a group of opposition parliamentarians of sabotaging the government’s attempt to provide women with increased representation in the country’s decision-making bodies. 

Delivering a special statement to the media in Badulla, he said that from the national government the people expected a government that thinks in a new way.

 Wickremesinghe said that in that path to create a new democratic society the rights of everyone should be protected and that everyone should be respected. 

He stated that the government took an important first step in providing women proper representation by allocating 25% of the membership of local government bodies for women. 

“If need be it can even increase up to 100%. On the other hand male representation can only be a maximum of 75%.” 

“But what happened? We all agreed to present it to Parliament last Tuesday and to unanimously pass it,” he said. 

However, the PM said, that when the bill was tabled in parliament, the “Rajapaksa gang” attempted to “sabotage” it and that they gathered at the center of the chamber and created an uproar against it, in reference to the self-styled Joint Opposition,. 

“This group does not care about the rights of women,” he charged.