{"id":41117,"date":"2015-05-03T17:29:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-03T21:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=41117"},"modified":"2015-05-03T17:29:25","modified_gmt":"2015-05-03T21:29:25","slug":"president-sirisena-tables-cabinet-memorandum-for-20th-constitutional-amendment-proposing-a-mixed-electoral-system-of-fpp-and-pr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=41117","title":{"rendered":"President Sirisena Tables Cabinet Memorandum for 20th Constitutional Amendment Proposing a Mixed Electoral System of FPP and PR."},"content":{"rendered":"

With matters relating to 19A over, at Wednesday\u2019s ministerial meeting, President Sirisena said he was tabling a Cabinet Memorandum titled \u201cProposed Constitutional Amendment for Electoral Reforms through the introduction of a mixed Electoral system consisting of first past-the-post system and the proportional representation system.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told his ministers that it was only a basis for discussion and was in no way a final document. Minister Rajitha Senaratna said that someone should be asked to make a visual presentation of the suggestions contained in Sirisena\u2019s memorandum. Here is the full text of Sirisena\u2019s Cabinet Memorandum dated April 29:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been decided to present a draft amendment to the Constitution for electoral reforms having obtained the views of all the parties in respect of the Cabinet Memorandum No: 15\/044\/601\/008 submitted by me on 22.04.2015 on the above subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this regard, a number of meetings had been held to obtain the consensus of many political parties in order to formulate a draft expanding the proposals made by the political parties represented in Parliament including the two main political parties and by the Dinesh Gunawardena Committee appointed by Parliament earlier. The main features of the draft formulated accordingly are summarised below:<\/p>\n

\u201c1. To assign legal authority for the establishment of a Delimitation Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201c2. To increase the number of Members of Parliament to 255 in order to broaden the representation.<\/p>\n

\u201c3. To divide the Electoral Districts in the island to a figure around 20-25 by the Delimitation Commission and to divide such Electoral Districs into Polling Divisions, ensuring each is divided into not less than three and not more than sixteen polling divisions.<\/p>\n

\u201c4. In demarcating polling divisions the criterion adopted will be geographical and physical features, ethnic composition, development levels, cultural ties and the number of registered voters.<\/p>\n

\u201c5. Multimember constituencies will be established in addition to single-member constituencies. 165 Members of Parliament will be elected from the multi-member and single member constituencies.<\/p>\n

\u201c6. The current number of 196 district Members of Parliament will be divided among all the polling divisions under the proportional representation system. The above mentioned 165 members will necessarily be elected to Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201c7. When submitting nomination papers number of candidates equal to a number obtained by adding 3 to the maximum number of candidates who can be elected under proportional representation system, should be nominated for electoral districts and the candidates contesting for polling divisions should be specified.<\/p>\n

\u201c8. Number of members entitled for each electoral district including bonus seats should be apportioned among political parties\/independent groups which polled more than 5 % of votes.<\/p>\n

\u201c9. The candidates who successfully contested polling divisions (in the case of multi-member constituencies, 2 or 3 members) should be elected to represent the relevant polling divisions.<\/p>\n

\u201c10. When a political party\/independent group has successfully contested a number of seats less than the number of seats entitled under proportional representation the candidates who unsuccessfully contested should be elected beginning from the highest number of votes they polled to the lowest for such polling divisions.<\/p>\n

\u201c11. When the number of members elected from polling divisions is more than the number of members entitled under the proportional representation for any political party\/independent group, the surplus number of members can be apportioned from the number of members entitled to each political party\/independent group from the national list of members which is 59 members which is obtained by subtracting 196 from 255 (subject to obtaining a minimum of 1 % of votes). Therefore, if it is necessary 59 candidates can be nominated for national list.<\/p>\n

\u201c12. When a vacancy occurs in a polling division represented by a member a by election should be held.
\n\u201cNote 1 \u2013 There should be an amendment to the Parliamentary Elections Act to the effect that a vacancy of a member elected under proportional representation or national list should be filled from among candidates who unsuccessfully contested for polling divisions or from the candidates whose names appeared in district nomination papers or from the national list.<\/p>\n

\u201cNote 2 \u2013 When electing members for proportional representation under paragraph 10 above, the following proposal should be considered: In case of any party\/group winning seats less than the amount due on the proportional representation system the selection of 50% of that number of seats will be made on the successive percentages polled by the members not selected. The remaining 50% will be named by the Party Secretary out of the residual candidates from the same district.<\/p>\n

\u201cI seek the approval for the presentation to Parliament of the draft containing the above basic facts.\u201d
\nThe electoral reforms, to be introduced in Parliament as 20A, have now become the focal point of attention. Smaller political parties are seeking further discussion on changes in proposals contained in Sirisena\u2019s April 22 Cabinet Memorandum. <\/p>\n

Responding to his earlier proposal (of April 22), three ministers representing \u2018small and minority\u2019 parties have expressed dissenting views. They have also forwarded a draft 20th Amendment and asked President Sirisena to seek the observations of the Legal Draftsman. The three are Rauff Hakeem, Minister of Urban Development, Water Supply and Drainage, Rishard Bathiuddin, Minister of Industry and Commerce and Palani Digambaram, Minister of Plantation Infrastructure Development (non cabinet rank). Their response came after a meeting where the trio together with JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, took part.<\/p>\n

The \u2018small and minority parties\u2019 are urging, among other matters, that:<\/p>\n

50% of the MPs be elected under the First-Past-the-Post (FPP) system and the balance under the Proportional Representation (PR) system.<\/p>\n

That a minimum of 75 per cent of the PR members be on Electoral District basis and the balance on National level (National List).<\/p>\n

The system of electing MPs \u2013 Each voter is entitled to two separate votes that can be cast independently of each other. The first vote, is for one of the candidates in his\/her polling division (electorate), and the second vote, for one of the party of his\/her choice. It is possible to vote for different parties.<\/p>\n

Each party has to give a list of candidates for each electoral district to be elected on the PR system. The sequence of the candidates on the lists is to be fixed by the parties themselves beforehand. Out of the first vote, the candidate who polls most votes in a polling division will be the winner.<\/p>\n

National list MPs will be apportioned on the basis of the strength of the second votes each party receives at the national level. The parties that fail to get the minimum of 5% of the second votes at National level will be disqualified.<\/p>\n

The process to reach accord among political parties on electoral reforms that will form the 20A will be protracted. In the light of this, parties like the SLMC and the JVP say they would prefer elections being held under the existing system for the last time. Thereafter, they say, it would enable a new Government to be elected at the impending parliamentary elections to finalise the reforms. <\/p>\n

The setting up of a Delimitation Commission, as Sirisena has recommended, would take considerable time not to mention the fact that it will need further time to complete the task. Yet, Sirisena has assured the SLFP parliamentary group and the Central Committee that he would not dissolve Parliament until 20A is approved. To say the least, the process is going to be time consuming.<\/p>\n

That raises the question of the UNP dominated Government. The party\u2019s Working Committee had decided earlier to call for the dissolution of Parliament on April 23. Later, party leaders agreed they would wait for a few more weeks to accomplish the urgent tasks before them. <\/p>\n

Their position was underscored by Premier Wickremesinghe when he told the Sunday Times, \u201cThe coalition that brought Maithripala Sirisena to power should not crack up. We cannot travel on different paths.\u201d That makes clear the UNP would go along until such time the electoral reforms are concluded.<\/p>\n

For the moment, Maithripala Sirisena\u2019s unassuming political diplomacy has brought him victory in 19A. Whether it is good enough is debatable but the SLFP has also won to the point that it has had its way on two key provisions in the 19A \u2014 those which were not pledged in the 100 Programme of Work. The minority UNP Government too is a victor to the extent that it wisely chose to go along with the majority view instead of backing out. Hence all are victors in their own way as the 19A forms a chapter in the Constitution. The challenge for all of them now is 20A.<\/p>\n


\nCourtesy:Sunday Times<\/em><\/p>\n

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With matters relating to 19A over, at Wednesday\u2019s ministerial meeting, President Sirisena said he was tabling a Cabinet Memorandum titled \u201cProposed Constitutional Amendment for Electoral Reforms through the introduction of a mixed Electoral system consisting of first past-the-post system and the proportional representation system.\u201d He told his ministers that it was only a basis for …<\/p>\n

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