{"id":119531,"date":"2014-02-03T21:45:49","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T16:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=119531"},"modified":"2014-02-16T04:57:07","modified_gmt":"2014-02-15T23:27:07","slug":"womens-rights-activists-call-for-withdrawal-of-sexist-caffe-licence-to-observe-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/womens-rights-activists-call-for-withdrawal-of-sexist-caffe-licence-to-observe-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Rights Activists Call For Withdrawal Of &#8216;Sexist&#8217; CaFFE Licence To Observe Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United Women\u2019s Front has called on Elections Commissioner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Deshapriya&amp;x=7&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Mahinda Deshapriya<\/span><\/a> to disallow the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) from observing Sri Lankan elections after it made sexist remarks against actresses and models seeking nominations for the Western and Southern Provincial Council polls due in March.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_118795\" style=\"width: 209px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Diana.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-118795\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-118795\" alt=\"Diana Gamage\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Diana-199x300.jpg\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Diana-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Diana.jpg 325w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-118795\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diana Gamage<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cElections Observers should be non-partisan and independent and they do not have the right to decide which candidates should stand for election or to foist that opinion upon the people. It is undemocratic to permit any observer organisation that violates these fundamental conditions should be granted official permission to observe elections,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Diana+Gamage&amp;x=8&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Diana Gamage<\/span><\/a>, head of the UWF wrote in a letter to the Polls Chief.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe that to permit CaFFE to continue to observe elections officially to be an anti-democratic act,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Gamage said that on 22 January CaFFE had issued a media release publicly requesting political parties to refrain from fielding actors and actresses as election candidates. \u201cWith universal franchise, every Sri Lankan irrespective of educational qualification, social class, caste or creed was granted the right to choose his or her representatives on the principle of one person \u2013 one vote. That universal right to vote also spurred political parties to field candidates at elections that were representative of every strata and section of society. The CaFFE call for political parties to refrain from fielding actors and actresses was a violation of these democratic principles,\u201d the letter to the Commissioner said.<\/p>\n<p>The UWF said that in the same media release CaFFE also noted that actresses and models should not be granted nominations by political parties because they were \u2018sex symbols\u2019. \u201cThis is a degrading and malicious statement that was deeply insulting and damaging to women. By failing to refer to male singers and actors as sex symbols, CaFFE proved that it was anti-women. The statement had an adverse impact on many young women attempting to come forward to contest elections. Unnecessary aspersions were also cast on the personal lives of these women,\u201d Gamage\u2019s letter said.<\/p>\n<p>She said CaFFE engages in election observation even though it is clearly not independent and non-partisan in its attitude towards women.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince the official sanction to observe elections is bestowed by Elections Commissioner, the United Women\u2019s Front has called on the Commissioner to withdraw their approval to observe with immediate effect,\u201d Gamage urged.<\/p>\n<p>Related posts;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/popular-sexist-outburst-and-independent-election-monitoring\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Popular \u201cSexist\u201d Outburst And \u201cIndependent\u201d Election Monitoring<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":118795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Women\u2019s Rights Activists Call For Withdrawal Of &#039;Sexist&#039; 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