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Electoral reform process must be handled carefully to avoid instability at parliamentary elections
View(s):The results of local council elections have not been officially released as yet although two weeks have elapsed since polling closed. Clearly there are many challenges posed by the new election laws which have left the Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya exhausted. He publicly declared that he needed a one month vacation to recover from his labours.
On the face of it, the delay cannot be the fault of the Election Commission or its staff who have the experience of having conducted several elections successfully and promptly releasing the results in their earlier avatar as the Department of Elections when they had much lesser powers.
It is, therefore, very likely that the problems faced by the Election Commission in releasing the results are due to the defects in the new Local Government Election Laws. This is not surprising considering the shoddy manner in which the law was passed with several amendments moved at the Committee stage and rushed through Parliament without obtaining the views of the experts in the Election Commission and leaving the legislators with no time to adequately deliberate on the contents of the legislation.
A full study of the new Local Government Election Law and the experience of the February 10 elections has to be, therefore, immediately undertaken before embarking on reforms in the Provincial Councils and Parliamentary Election process to prevent a recurrence of what has happened in the recently concluded Local Government Elections.
If ill conceived legislation is passed as part of the electoral reform process and parliamentary election results are delayed for more than two weeks, one shudders to think of the chaos that can ensue. It would be advisable, therefore, if the Government addresses this concern well in advance.
The Election Commission’s observations on the experience of the February 10 elections are eagerly awaited for a study of the flaws and defects in the news system. However, there are several areas for reform which are self evident that the public themselves can observe.
One such area is that the Local Government Election Law does not provide for an individual to contest a ward without being part of a larger team of candidates from a political party or independent group. This prevents professionals and others of local standing who wish to make a contribution to society from entering the fray.
Another matter that needs the attention of the legislature is the question whether there is the need to have multimember seats at local government level. As argued in these columns previously at the local government level, it is better to get people used to voting for candidates based on their capabilities rather than on their ethnic or religious identity. This will greatly contribute to the larger reconciliation and nation building process.
Besides, the experience of the recently concluded local council elections shows even the intended objective of offering the voter the choice of choosing candidates of diverse ethnicities in multimember constituencies was not served. While the national parties fielded candidates with different ethnic identities in the multimember wards the ethnic-based parties chose to field candidates from only one ethnicity in such wards, thus defeating the very purpose for which such multimember wards were carved out.
While the new system has achieved the objective of reducing election violence, it does not seem to have completely prevented criminal and other anti-social elements from contesting and being elected to local bodies. Election monitoring bodies such as PAFFREL, CAFFE and CMEV have identified such unsavoury characters. The blame for this situation must be shared by the political parties which nominated them and the voters who elected them.
The objective of electing the best individual, irrespective of their political party affiliation, has also not been achieved as most voters have chosen to vote on the basis of their party preferences irrespective of the merits or demerits of the individual candidates. In many instances, the voter has even been ignorant of the identity of the individual who was contesting the ward.
The best illustration of this was the election to the Maharagama Urban Council. After the list of candidates submitted by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna was rejected, the SLPP backed an independent list which won control of the local body. Clearly the voters at Maharagama had voted for candidates who were unknown to them. Most of these candidates were residing in areas outside Maharagama.
Another matter that needs to be addressed is the alliances that political parties enter into at election time. The public are told on election platforms that a particular party is contesting together with several other parties at the election. However, the voter is kept in the dark as to who such other parties are and the contents of the agreements entered into. The voter is, therefore, unable to make an informed decision when he is casting his vote.
At the recent local council elections, the Ceylon Workers Congress contested in alliance with the SLFP in several areas; but barely had the results come to be known (unofficially), CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman was parading the streets of Nuwara Eliya hand in hand with C.B. Ratnayake, the District leader of the SLPP, stating that they were going to work together.
Several hours later television screens showed him in the company of President Maithripala Sirisena ostensibly to further consolidate his alliance with the SLFP. Adding insult to injury, addressing those present at the meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena, Mr. Thondaman in reply to criticisms by his political opponents said that he never spoke with two tongues.
It is, therefore, vital that the election related legislation at all levels from Presidential to Local Government must ensure that all alliances be informed through the Election Commission to the public and all agreements that lead to the formation of such alliances be lodged with the Commission and published on the Commission’s websites before the conclusion of nominations. This will enable the voter to make an informed decision when casting his vote.
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