by Dr. HM .Mauroof
The submissions of the Interim Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reforms was followed by a series of interviews of senior representatives of political parties and by a few articles on the subject in the Daily Mirror and Sunday Times.
Having made written representations in due time to the PSC on the question of providing adequate representation in Parliament to the Muslim community without fruit, I write this in the context of the Final Report which is forthcoming; the main idea is to catch the attention of not only the Chairman and Members of the PSC but also that of opinion leaders, particularly, of the Muslim community.
The hidden defects, due more to omission than commission, in the Report on the question of providing adequate representation to the Muslims in Parliament may not at once be apparent to the general public because 75% of the total Muslim population in the country live in scattered pockets, small and large, unlike the Sinhalese in the seven Southern Provinces, Tamils in the Northern Province and the Muslims in the Eastern Province, where only 25% of the total Muslim population live.
Not only has the Interim Report failed to make provision for the Muslims outside the East to obtain due representation, but more, they have by the provisions suggested in their Report, downgraded whatever means that were already available in the previous decades from and before Independence in 1948.
During colonial times Muslim representation was sought to be achieved through the legal powers vested in the Governor, empowering him the use of his discretion to appoint them as required. Subsequently, at Independence, the Soulbury Commission sought to alleviate the problem by means of;
providing for a limited number of appointed MPs.
providing for the creation of multi-member constituencies in areas where Muslims lived in large enough concentration.
indirectly giving the Delimitation Commission an option to create constituencies with lesser number of citizens than the Provincial average would allow.
These provisions did upgrade the level of Muslim representation, but, still, never achieved numbers in proportion to the Muslim population ratio in the country.
During the period there were in all three Delimitation Commissions working under total First Past the Post (FPP) system, and all three of them in their Reports of 1947, 1959 and 1976 respectively, were unanimous in their lamentation of their impotence to make provisions for the much deserved adequate representation for Muslims, partly because of the lack of specific directions in the available provisions in the electoral laws.
Thereafter the 1978 Constitution gave birth to the total Proportional Representations (PR) System where the administrative districts became the electorate. The PR system with district-wise constituencies reduced the disadvantageous plight of the scattered Muslim community in getting adequate representation. To the credit of the then Government it introduced an amendment to the prevalent provisions, namely the fifteenth amendment to the constitution of 1988, which read as follows:
” Article 99A of the Constitution is hereby amended by the insertion immediately after the third paragraph of that Article of the following new paragraph:
‘The Commissioner of Elections shall before issuing the aforesaid notice, determine whether the number of members belonging to any community, ethnic or otherwise, elected to Parliament under Article 98 is commensurate with its national population ratio and requests the Secretary of such political party, group leader of such independent group in so nominating persons to be elected as members of Parliament to ensure as far as practicable, that the representation of all communities is commensurate with its national population ratio’.”
In fact, subsequently for the very first time the Muslims on one occasion were able to touch and surpass, although marginally, their due 8% ratio.
On the basis of this at every General Election since the Amendment, the Muslims secured representation, though geographically lopsided, equal to their country-wide population ratio; lopsided because half the total representatives came from the Eastern Province. However, what was gained in quantity, the system gave birth to, like for all communities in common, a set of poor quality representation, for reasons that are commonly known.
It is for this reason that there has developed a consensus in the country in favour of a change from the PR system.
It is this context that the PSC is offering in its Interim Report a mixture of the FPP and the PR system namely, 140 under the FPP, 70 under the District PR system and 15 under the National List.
These ratios recommended in the Interim Report, on deeper examination, reveal a probable dark future for Muslim representation. The after effects of its implementation threaten to reduce Muslim representation to levels lower than ever before.
After every census since Independence the number of Parliamentary constituencies increased naturally - the first Parliament had 95 elected members from 89 constituencies in 1947 and the last under the FPP of 1977, 168 members from 160 constituencies. Each time electoral constituencies are increased in numbers the area of each one of these got constricted, and, in consequence the percentage of Muslims in the constituency increased; and this fact enhanced the respective Delimitation Commissions to try demarcate constituencies to facilitate Muslim representation. In 1959 citizen population in the country was 8 million and the Delimitation Commission of that year demarcated 145 constituencies to elect 151 members, the 1976 citizen population was 12 million and today it is nearly 21 million.. Therefore in order to maintain a situation of status quo of percentage Muslim population a Delimitation Commission has, theoretically and allowing for other variables, to have over 200 constituencies; the Interim Report has recommended to reduce the number of electorates to 140 which is less than even the number of electorates in 1959! Such will further dilute the Muslim populate, helping eliminate chances of Muslims getting elected in the eight Provinces outside the East.
The Interim Report prescribes only single-member electorates as against the earlier availability, during the entire period of the FPP system from 1947 to 1977, of several multi-member constituencies which help facilitate the scattered Muslim community to elect their due numbers. Never was it ever possible for the Muslim community during the FPP system to elect their 8% share of members to Parliament and about 50% of those that got elected came through multi-member constituencies, especially from outside the East. Therefore artificially helping dilute the already scattered and naturally diluted Muslim community will only help further decimate Muslim representation in Parliament.
One third, namely 70 are recommended to be elected through the PR system which is totally different from the PR system prevalent up until to-day.
It is difficult to forecast how a minority party candidate will fare under this system, but, in the current circumstances it would seem heavily weighted in favour of candidates of the two major parties. However the percentage of vote obtained by Parties contesting under minority Party labels , while not helping themselves in terms of victory in the eight Provinces outside the East, will add to the chances of Muslim candidates contesting under major Party labels to lose out.
The recommended national List of 15 is according to the Interim Report, to be constituted under three categories, namely, 5 as bonus seats to the Party that polled the largest, 3 to unrepresented minor Parties and 7 to be allocated to the votes polled in the country.
This recommendation annuls in one stroke the provisions made available to make up any shortfall in equitable community representation made available in the 15th amendment of 1988 referred to earlier on.
The District MPs categorized in the Interim Report as District Proportional Representatives (DPR) seats is really a misnomer. Those to be chosen as MPs under the DPR category are from among the losing candidates from constituencies for which MPs have already been elected under the FPP system. These cannot in anyway claim to represent the whole District, and, appear merely as an excuse to include a category called DPR MPs. It would therefore be more appropriate to reduce the area of each constituency in the District and demarcate smaller constituencies. Taking into consideration the interests of all the communities and groups it would appear reasonable to allow 180 seats under the FPP system and include 45 seats on the National List.
Of these 45 National List MPs, 29 as in the present Parliament could be elected on national PR subject to the 15th Amendment of 1988, the remainder to be allocated to small Parties and smaller unrepresented communities like the Veddhas, Burghers and Malays etc.
Finally every single Delimitation Commission had emphasized and re-emphasized the need to provide adequate and equitable representation to all communities in the country. The 1959 Commission put this point succinctly in para 30 of its Report, which stated “The main intention of the Order in Council as amended is clearly is to render possible the representation of citizens united by ties of race, religion, or any other community of interest. The Commission has endeavoured to give effect to this intention as far as it is possible so that Parliament would be a mirror of the will of the people. We were careful not to create a sense in the Nation that any single class of any importance is excluded from power; any exclusion from power tends naturally to mean exclusion from benefits too.”
Considerations of the aspect of adequate representation to all communities is most important, particularly in the present era when the main and primary issues facing the country seem to emanate from the question of ethnicity. The PSC should take timely affirmative action not to evoke dissatisfaction causing causes for agitation and be fair by all communities that constitute the Nation.
In the circumstances it appears to us that the most important and fundamental provisions that should be embedded within the electoral laws should give the following direction to the Delimitation Commission: “The Delimitation Commission shall render it probable that every community in the Country obtain Parliamentary representation equal in number to its country-widepopulation ratio”.
Dr H.M.Mauroof is President of the National Muslim Movement
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