Sunday Times 2
General election in the eyes of a voter
In the presidential election in November last year, 13.38 million or 83.72 percent of the registered voters cast their franchise. In the August 5 parliamentary election, only 12.34 million or 75.89 percent of the registered voters voted. The voter apathy is further vindicated by the number of rejected votes.
The number of rejected votes at the 2019 presidential election was 135,452. At the August 5 parliamentary election, the third highest polled was the rejected votes 744,373 (4.58% of the total votes). That is 600,000 more than the presidential election rejected votes. Effectively, 1.6 million voters (10 percent of total voters) who cast their vote in the presidential election chose to stay at home or spoiled their votes. Can this be due to:
complications in the ballot paper,
deliberate manipulation
too many independent groups
voters were unaware of how to cast their vote especially the elderly
being at quarantine centres
stuck out of the country due to the pandemic
protest vote – anti-government or anti-other parties?
Electronic voting technology
In the August 5 general election, those in quarantine centres could not vote and, therefore, we should look at introducing a mobile voting system or an electronic voting technology. Electronic voting technology is ideal for Sri Lanka to speed up the counting of votes (especially the preferential votes) and to declare the results faster. This would reduce the cost of paying staff to count votes manually; provide improved accessibility for disabled voters; voters saving time and cost by being able to vote independently from their location. This may increase overall voter turnout and citizens living abroad will be enabled to cast their votes.
Proportional Representation system
The Proportional Representation system was introduced to ensure broader representation by candidates from political parties and independent groups and to prevent any party obtaining a majority so that the parliament will have an equally vibrant opposition to check and balance the government. The Sirimavo Bandaranaike government (1970-77) ruled for seven years because it had a two-thirds majority. J.R. Jayewardene won a five-sixth majority in 1977 and brought a new Constitution to introduce the Executive Presidency which has now become a bane to this country. In 2010 Mahinda Rajapaksa government received a strong electoral mandate and it introduced the 18th Amendment. In all these three instances, democracy were doubly challenged.
With the PR system many small parties were formed based on race, religion, language and other identities. Currently it’s a norm that these parties contest as an alliance and go solo in areas they have a majority voter base. For instance, the SLMC and the ACMC contested alone in Batticaloa and Ampara districts respectively while being part of the SJB alliance in other districts; the SLFP which contested as part of the SLPP-led alliance in most districts contested separately in Jaffna and got a seat; the SLMC and the ACMC forged together the MNA and won a seat in Puttalam. This may be a way of collecting more seats and having an eye on a bonus seat.
Magical figure
The SLPP was fortunate to receive a strong electoral mandate in the recent parliamentary election. If by chance it fell short of the magical figure of 113 seats then the bargaining starts with loads of paybacks to buy over parliamentarians. In similar situations the minority parties hold the carrot to break or make governments. Parliamentarians too, once elected, forget to voice the aspirations of their vote bases and settle for plum luxuries.
In Sri Lanka, DNA studies reveal that the major ethnic groups in the island namely Sri Lankan Tamils, Sinhalese (Upcountry and Low Country) and Veddahs are genetically related. Therefore parties based on race, religion, language or other identities should be discouraged. Every citizen must breathe and think as Sri Lankans. In such inclusiveness, politics based on petty agendas that have sown division in our society will be a past and a national undertaking to develop our country will be visible.
In the parliamentary election, the people have spoken loudly and clearly and given the SLPP power with 145 seats. With power comes great responsibility and we hope that the President and parliament will deliver this to the people so that this victory sets the stage for an era of reviving the economy from the present plight and all citizens can enjoy a peaceful and prosperous life in Sri Lanka.
Economic revival
The Government needs a team of experts to develop a recovery strategy. The team should comprise qualified and credible experts, with international experience.
They should provide the government with independent advice on formulating an economic recovery strategy, monitor outcomes and suggest short-term and long-term policy corrections. The opposition too should put away petty agendas aside and cooperate with the government and similarly see that the rights of all people are respected through implementation of good governance measures.