Sri Lanka’s electoral system is in the news again. President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said the government is keen to introduce electoral reforms, and even ready to seek people’s approval for them at a referendum in case it fails to secure the support of other political parties in six months or so.
Why the President is in a hurry to introduce electoral reforms is understandable. The current electoral system is riddled with flaws, which have to be rectified to preserve democracy. He has not made specific mention of the electoral reforms he is going to implement with or without the backing of political parties, but presumably he has referred to the recommendations in the final report presented to Parliament, on 22 June 2022, by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to Identify Appropriate Reforms of the Election Laws and the Electoral System and to Recommend Necessary Amendments. The then Leader of the House and Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Dinesh Gunawardena was the head of the PSC.
The PSC has made recommendations in respect of the election system, female and youth representation in politics, the recognition of political parties, the media, election campaigning, voting rights, the nomination process, the electoral process, an election tribunal, the national list, and delimitation.
The 15-member PSC, headed by the then Minister Dinesh Gunawardena commenced sittings on 17 May 2021. Its members were Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva, Sagara Kariyawasam, Prof. G. L. Peiris, and Douglas Devananda, and MPs Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Wimal Weerawansa, M.U.M. Ali Sabry PC, Jeevan Thondaman, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Kabir Hashim, Ranjith Maddumabandara, Mano Ganesan, M. A. Sumanthiran, PC, Madhura Withanage.
According to Gunawardena, who presented the PSC report to the parliament, it contains 25 observations and 15 recommendations, the key ones among them being as follows:
- Amending the existing laws pertaining to the Provincial Council elections or formulating new rules and regulations or holding them under the previous election system.
- Introducing a mixed election system
- Removal of overhang seats in local government elections
- Increasing youth and female representation
- Ensuring that the media acted in keeping with responsibilities and obligations, during elections, as recommended by the EC in its submissions to the PSC
- Streamlining the registration of political parties
- Enabling candidates to conduct political propaganda activities through electronic media in a fair manner.
- Formulating laws to regulate campaign expenditure, and introducing a code of conduct
Reforms have been proposed in respect of the local government, provincial council and parliamentary elections. It has been recommended that women’s representation be increased and a 25% quota be allocated on the nomination lists for local government elections and provincial council elections for the youth.
Among the other recommendations are the recognition of political parties on the basis of voter acceptance. Recommendations have also been made on media guidelines, conducting political propaganda activities through electronic media, the enforcement of election laws in respect of social media platforms, the misinterpretation of information and the dissemination of false information.
The PSC recommendations also pertain to election campaigning, the right to vote, the nomination process, the electoral process, the setting-up of an Election Tribunal, the delegation of powers of the Local Government Institutions and the Provincial Councils to the Commissioners/Secretaries and the Provincial Secretaries pending elections to them, the failure to approve the annual budget by any local government authority, the restrictions on the state field officers to contest local government elections, the National List and the delimitation process.
The general consensus is that the current electoral system has to be reformed, but there is no consensus on the changes to be made to it. There will have to be further discussions on the Dinesh Gunawardena committee recommendations, which provide a broad framework. But the question is whether it will be possible for the country to focus on electoral reforms, at present, given the worsening economic crisis, which has given rise to political and social unrest.
The government is currently grappling with the task of introducing economic and structural reforms, which are not likely to go down well with the public. The IMF has prescribed an extremely bitter economic pill, which will have to be shoved down the throat of every citizen if the promised bailout package is to be secured, and the economy put back on an even keel. There is bound to be resistance as the government will have to make a number of unpopular decisions about the state-owned ventures and resort to some harsh measures such as tax and tariff increases, welfare cuts and further import restrictions. It may not be prudent for the government to undertake other tasks such as the implementation of electoral reforms at this juncture. But President Wickremesinghe seems convinced otherwise.
EC Chief’s home truth
Meanwhile, Election Commission (EC) Chairman Nimal Punchihewa has emphasized the need for reforming the electoral system, which he has called corrupt and unfair. He made this observation while speaking at a seminar, ‘Democracy under strain: Solutions for a changing world’, held in Colombo on Sept. 15 to mark the International Day of Democracy. He admitted that the EC could not prevent undesirables from contesting elections at present.
Punchihewa has however made no revelation. That the EC is powerless as the existing election laws lack strong teeth is only public knowledge. He has said there is a pressing need for an effective legal mechanism to regulate campaign finance—something the Gunawardena committee, the media, civil society organizations, etc., have also been clamoring for all these years.
The absence of tough laws to control campaign finance has created a situation where moneybags bankroll influential politicians’ election campaigns by way of an investment. They lavish funds on politicians of all major parties so that whoever wins their interests will be taken care of. Thus, after every election, it is not the interests of the people that prevail, but those of the financiers, who secure government contracts and/or receive various other favors in return for their campaign contributions. Politics has therefore become a big business, where the people, in whom sovereignty is said to reside, according to the Constitution, have no say. Big money has also taken its toll on the bonds between the electors and the elected. Most candidates ‘buy’ votes by spending huge amounts of funds on handouts. Some of them even distribute cash, dry rations and liquor during election campaigns. There have been instances where even mobile phones were given away by wealthy candidates.
In September 2021, the Monaragala High Court disqualified a member of the Monaragala Pradeshiya Sabha (PS), D. M. Harshaka Priya Dissanayake, for bribing voters during his election campaign in 2018. A UNP candidate who lost the election moved the High Court against him with the help of the People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL). Their joint effort yielded the desired result. Among the charges against Dissanayake was that he bore the cost of water and electricity connections for many households that accounted for the majority of the votes in Ward No 06, Maduruketiya in Monaragala PS. He also distributed dry rations and liquor among voters, the court was told.
Another major flaw in the electoral system, according to the EC Chief, is lack of provision for adequate youth and women’s representation in Parliament. There is a pressing need to adopt remedial action. The youth have become disillusioned with the entire political system, and have taken to the streets on several occasions during the past few months. They also rebelled against the state in 1971 and in the late 1980s, demanding a system change. Thousands of youth have died in clashes with the police, the armed forces and vigilantes. Their protests, this year, snowballed into a mass agitation campaign, which led to the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Cabinet. and the subsequent ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa himself. One way of restoring the trust of the youth in the electoral and political systems will be to increase their representation in the parliament and other political institutions. Women constitute more than one half of the Sri Lankan population and therefore the demand that more female members be accommodated in the parliament, in the local government bodies and the provincial councils is nothing but fair.
EC Chairman Punchihewa has also emphasized the need for a Code of Conduct to ensure that only decent men and women will be contesting elections in the future. All political party leaders claim to be on a mission to cleanse politics, but they themselves nominate undesirables as candidates, and the corrupt are at an advantage in electoral contests because they have the wherewithal to outspend others in the fray. If the political parties care to field only decent persons at elections, the country will gain whichever party wins. It is time all political party leaders acted responsibly and took action to tackle the problem at source.
Most of all, there will have to be an attitudinal change on the part of the electors if a new political culture is to evolve. Many people tend to vote for the corrupt and even violent elements at the expense of decent candidates. What they expect of their political representatives is patronage, and not service to society as such. This is why even those who have been charged with murder, robbery and other such grave crimes succeeded in having themselves returned at elections.
