Constitutions: The laws relating to parliamentary elections as embodied in the 1978 constitution made a drastic change in the electoral method of representation embodied in both the 1948 and the 1972 constitutions.
It should be noted that while the Donoughmore and Soulbury constitutions of 1948 as well as the 1972 Republican Constitution provided for election of individual members to Parliament, the 1978 constitution obliterated the importance of the individuality of the members and made it compulsory to elect registered political parties or independent groups to Parliament.
In other words the 1978 constitution handed over the role of representation of the people in Parliament from individuals to political groups.
The Proportional representation system together with the original 12.5 per cent cut-off point, and the concept of the district bonus seat went against the very spirit of the concept of "Representation according to the proportion of the votes".
In view of the fact that the Sri Lankan Muslim community does not constitute more than 12.5 per cent (of the total population of the electoral district) except in Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Vanni districts; the 1978 constitution dealt an effective blow to the political representation of nearly 69% of the Muslim minority community who are scattered in the other 18 districts.
The 1976 Delimitation Commission worked on the basis of the 1971 census which reflected a total population of 12,701,143 and 11,605,903 citizens. This Delimitation Commission created 143 territorial constituencies on the basis of 90,000 people per constituency and 25 additional constituencies for the land area of 1000 sq. miles. This exercise resulted in the creation of a total number of 190 territorial constituencies returning 168 members.
However, the fact that a population of over 1 million (1,105,240) were not citizens and therefore, ineligible to vote meant that they were deprived of their due share of representation in Parliament. The loss of representation of that community became the gain of the majority community.
The resulting position was that the 73 per cent Sinhalese were left with 83 per cent seats in Parliament whilst the 12 per cent Sri Lankan Tamils had 11 per cent of the seats and 8 per cent Muslims and 6 per cent Indian Tamils were left with 3 per cent of parliamentary seats respectively.
The 1976 Delimitation commission did not pay adequate attention to create smaller electorates with a view to ensure the Parliamentary representation of "substantial concentration of persons united by a community of interest where racial, religious or otherwise, but differing in one or more of these respects from the majority of the inhabitants of that area".
The last Delimitation Commission created constituencies with less than 1/2 the average number of voters in predominant Sinhala areas like Mahanuwara, Teldeniya, Viyaluwa and Colombo West.
It is a matter of regret that a substantial concentration of a minority Muslim community, living in a predominant Muslim village in Akkaraipatu in the Ampara district was irrationally divided into two areas so that one area became part of Sammanthurai electorate and the other area became part of Pottuvil electorate.
This resulted in the permanent deprivation of a reasonable opportunity for a voter from Akkaraipattu from successfully contesting either the Sammanthurai electorate or the Pottuvil electorate.
The 1981 Delimitation was carried out without the figures of the general census held in that year. As a result, the 160 territorial constituencies were retained and the 1976 Delimitation and 36 seats were added to the nine provinces at the rate of four seats per province without any consideration for the population or land area. A further number of 29 seats were added on the national PR, thus making the total membership of parliament 225.
Drawbacks in the present proportional representation election system
1. It is evident in the past that the linkage between the MP and the constituency is very feeble under the present PR system.
2. No identified member represents an electorate to whom the voter can go to redress his/her grievances.
3. Voters do not have much choice because in the PR system the party hierarchies' determination is final and conclusive.
4. In the present PR system the district constituency is very large when compared with the smaller territorial Constituency for the FPP. A candidate who can afford to spend large sums of money for propaganda can accumulate more number of preferences from the existing large district electorates in the PR system.
5. Stability of a Government is paramount for the progress of the country. The main objective of introducing the Proportional Representation election system was to ensure a fair and just representation for a stable government. The tone and tenor of the Interim Report is focusing more on facilitating stability without guaranteeing due representation to the minority communities.
6. Those who favour Stable Government prefer an equal Mixed system of FPP and PR.
7. The high degree of rejection of ballot papers at the two stages of counting of votes are the other drawbacks in the present PR system.
Drawbacks in the Electoral system proposed by the Parliamentary Selection Committee in the Interim Report
1. Inadequate provision for minority representation. No Multi Member Constituencies
2. There is no separate voting for the FPP and PR. Voting methodology proposed is only the FPP system of voting with one ballot paper for each voter to elect a candidate nominated by the Party/Independent group in each electorate for the election of members.
3. a). There is no separate PR voting system to elect PR candidates b). Wrong voting result is used. The voting result used in the example of 150 territorial electorate is not from the FPP election system but from the voting result of Proportional Representation system of 2001 and 2004. If the voting Pattern under the First Past the Post system is used in the sample 150 electorates, as in the case of the last FPP election held in 1977 the results would be quite different.
4. Unequal Mixture of FPP and PR 2/3 - 150 on FPP and 1/3 - 75 in the parliament of 225 members
5. The 75 seats supposed to be elected on the basis of PR is not elected on the basis of PR election system but from the votes polled on FPP system by defeated candidates and selected on the basis of preference of highest percentage.
6. Preferential vote to select a representative is one of the obnoxious features in the present PR system which is indirectly applied in the Interim Report.
Proposals
1.(a) Any proposed reforms should consider all level of governance namely, Executive Presidency, Parliament, Provincial Councils and Local Government and the system devised should be uniform and simply applicable to all these levels and concurrent with the Devolution package.
(b) Electoral reforms should provide equal opportunities to all communities and the legislature should reflect the true national ethnic composition.
(c) In view of maximum devolution contemplated, the parliament need not be large. Present 225 members should be reduced to 220 members.
(d) One half of the members of Parliament 110 seats from territorial constituencies on First Past the part - FPP and the other half 110 seats on National Proportional Representation - NPR
2.(a) Votes on the National PR is the deciding factor for the number of seats Party/Group should have in the Parliament as in the German system.
(b) Two ballots - first to elect the candidate for the territorial constituencies on FPP and the second to elect the Party/Group on National PR
(c) The 220 seats in Parliament should be allocated as follows:
Ethnic Group % Seats/FPP Seats/NPR Total
Sinhalese 74 80 80 160
Tamils 8 9 9 18
Indian Tamils 6 7 7 14
Total 100 110 110 220
3. Preference votes, cut-off point and district bonus should be abolished.
4. A Delimitation commission should be established immediately.
5. In the demarcation of constituencies, reduced electoral strength should be utilised by the delimitation commission in order to give adequate representation to the minorities according to their national ethnic ratio.
6. The delimitation commission should have the power to create multi-member constituencies in appropriate areas in order to render possible the representation of minority communities in the legislature according to their ethnic proportion.
7. Parliament should reflect the true voting pattern of the people. Votes on National PR should be the deciding factor each Party/Group should have in the legislature.
8. The Commissioner of election will determine the total entitlement of seats in Parliament of individual parties/groups based on the composition of the 2nd ballot at national level. From that entitlement the Election Commissioner will deduct the total number of seats secured by the parties at individual constituencies on the basis of the first ballot.
9. The political party/group concerned, on the direction of the Election Commissioner will nominate names of Candidates from the National PR list to fill only the remaining number of seats to which that party is entitled.
10. The 90 territorial constituencies will consist of 75 one member constituencies, 10 two member constituencies and five three member constituencies.
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