As Sri Lanka goes for snap elections today, the country has got its first openly transgender candidate vying for a seat in parliament.
Meet Chanu Nimesha. Nimesh, 49, is the representative of Socialist Party of Sri Lanka, contesting in the Kegalle constituency.
Who is Chanu Nimesha?
Chanu Nimesha, is the member of the LGBTQ+ community and a quantity surveyor by profession.
She is one of about 8,000 hoping for a seat in parliament in its structure of 225 seats, 196 directly elected and 29 through proportional representation.
She said, it’s about being there and inspiring, not about winning a seat. “I’m not worried about winning or losing,” she says to Reuters. “But it is important for me to be present in this space, to be seen, to inspire others like me. I want to help everybody, not just my community.”
Nimesha was born in the southern town of Galle, Sri Lanka. From an early stage of life, she was struck by the blow of political violence in her life, since her father was assassinated when Nimesha was 14 years of age in political insurgency.
Later, she moved to Colombo and became deeply entrenched in her identity and became an activist for inclusivity and social justice. Her conservative family rejected her, which is something she says she can relate to, but it lit a fire in her desire to advocate acceptance and a more inclusionary society.
“We have to see the humanity in each other and accept each other,” said the espoused intention of making a society that can embrace everybody.
Her Campaign and Objectives
Nimesha’s campaign focuses on social justice issues, which she says people are relating to. Her activism went further up to the 2022 protests against former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, for whom thousands of Sri Lankans mobilized to demand regime change against a country plunged into acute economic crisis. Rajapaksa fled abroad and stepped down as president. “I think many young Sri Lankans, including myself, were expecting this moment,” she said, about the hope it brought.
As a private life, Nimesha is an aspiring actress and musician, besides being an upcoming writer. She had a novel due for release soon, and all her creative adventures spoke of her volition to express herself more deeply and purely.
Her candidature for election has gained the support of members of her party, such as Nelson Samarasinghe, who pointed out that her candidacy marked a historical milestone in terms of transgender representation in Sri Lankan politics.
Sri Lanka’s snap elections are called by the leftist President, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, at a time when the as the country battles to rebound from an economic crisis that has been having a direct impact on millions across the island nation.
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