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Proxies in it for the free ride
View(s):By Minaza Hassan
Of the 38 candidates in the presidential election, most are confined to a list of names and their only contribution seems to be unnecessarily using administrative resources.
They are neither active contestants nor campaigning or sharing their policies.
“Only 15 candidates appear to be actively campaigning, and out of the rest, some candidates were not even reachable through the phone numbers that they had provided to the Election Commission,’’ said Executive Director of Institute for Reforms and Studies and the National Coordinator for Centre for Monitoring Election Violence, Manjula Gajanayake.
Each candidate receives 45 minutes of free air time on TV channels, Rupavahini and Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, however, only 15 candidates took the chance to address the nation, he said.
All candidates receive free postal facilities. They can send their election manifestos to households without paying postal charges, said Mr Gajanayake.
One of the contributing factors for inactive candidates is that they are proxies. More than 16 candidates are backing others, Mr Gajanayake said.
If there aren’t enough people in the counting centre, the EC will allow each candidate to send 5 polling agents of their choosing for counting in every counting station. Proxy candidates exist because some political parties or candidates want to increase the number of people of their own choosing who are sent as polling agents, said Mr Gajanayake.
Sometimes, proxies may also have their own motives — financial or other benefits.
The present deposit for political parties is Rs 50,000, and Rs 75,000 for independent groups. Cabinet has approved that the deposit for independents be raised to Rs 3.1 million, and Rs 2.6 million for political party contestants. This is expected to deter proxies. This has not been tabled in Parliament yet.
Yet another measure that can be taken to deter these candidates would be to ensure that independents obtain a minimum of 10,000 signatures of voters along with their submission of nomination papers and ensure that political party candidates at least have a local government experience, said Mr Gajanayake.
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