{"id":55441,"date":"2017-09-23T18:11:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-23T22:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55441"},"modified":"2017-09-23T18:17:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-23T22:17:18","slug":"55441","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55441","title":{"rendered":"How Maithri and Ranil Worked Hard Together to Garner a Two-Thirds Majority To Pass P.C. Elections Amendment Bill in Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

By<\/p>\n

The “Sunday Times” Political Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hopes of elections this year to three Provincial Councils \u2013 North Central, Sabaragamuwa and Eastern \u2013 were buoyed by last Tuesday\u2019s announcement of the Supreme Court determination, but evaporated just hours later.<\/p>\n

Ruling coalition leaders, not in favour of PC polls, adopted other counter measures that will now cause an indefinite delay. It came during a tense, behind-the-scenes political drama. Members of the Elections Commission threatened to resign. Even President Maithripala Sirisena, who was in New York to attend the 72nd sessions of the UN General Assembly kept himself busy from his hotel suite appealing for help from minority parties that backed his Government. It paid off.<\/p>\n

This came after the SC determination, by majority 2-1 vote on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution became public last Tuesday. Contrary to expectations of coalition leaders, the Court held that the three clauses of 20A (i.e. 2, 3 and 4) were inconsistent with the Constitution. Hence, the Court held that it required not only a two thirds majority vote in Parliament but also the approval of the people at a referendum. In essence the ruling affected the entirety of 20A. Clause 1 only referred to \u201cThis Act may be cited as the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution.\u201d Clause 4, the last one, contained the usual interpretative clause which said \u201cIn the event of any inconsistency between the Sinhala and Tamil texts of this Act, the Sinhala text shall prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there was no timely action on their part this week, coalition leaders realised, that the Elections Commission would gazette the date for nominations for the three PC elections. They knew that the Commission would thereafter set a date in December this year for the polls. Conducting a referendum to thwart the move was a high risk they did not wish to take. Hence they embarked on other hurried measures.<\/p>\n

What 20A sought was to introduce a provision to enable elections to all Provincial Councils to be held on the same date. For this, the Government wanted to empower Parliament to determine the date (which is also referred to as \u201cspecified date\u2019) on which PCs shall stand dissolved. Another provision was to include the term of office of any Provincial Council ending prior to the specified date to be deemed, to be extended. The term of any PC which continues beyond the specified date to stand dissolved on a fresh specified date. The third and final amendment was to enable Parliament to exercise powers of a dissolved PC until the specified date is determined.<\/p>\n

That the SC held that 20A was not consistent with the Constitution was bad news for the coalition leadership. The first indications of their course of action emerged from President Maithripala Sirisena\u2019s side. He did not favour the idea of an early PC poll. As is customary, he was the recipient of a sealed copy of the SC determination sent to Parliament. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Even before Speaker Karu Jayasuriya could formally announce the contents on Tuesday, they were on overdrive mode examining counter measures. That these would centre on a course of action in Parliament became clear when Sirisena decided that all MPs backing the Government should remain in Colombo. Even Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana, who was a last minute addition to his delegation had to stay put in Colombo. A group of MPs left for New York only on Thursday night after the vote.
\nCoalition leaders had by then decided on their course of action. <\/p>\n

Telephones hummed between Sirisena in New York and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Colombo. They resurrected a three-page \u201cProvincial Councils Elections (Amendment) Bill which was presented in Parliament on July 27 by Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Faiszer Musthapa. The purpose of this Bill, which lay in limbo, was to \u201cspecify the number of female candidates to be included in a nomination paper\u201d for PC elections. It sought to set out that of the candidates nominated for PC elections, not less than 30% should be females. It also made provision to reject any nomination paper which does not contain the specified number of female candidates. The three page bill had amendments that ran into some 30 pages. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya signed his assent on Friday night giving legal effect to the new laws passed by Parliament on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Caught by surprise that they were not consulted, the Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya rushed a letter to Speaker Jayasuriya. In that strong letter, he said, the Commissioners proposed to hold a news conference and later hand in their resignations. Speaker Jayasuriya was to extend his apologies at a meeting on Friday with Deshapriya, the Chairman of the Delimitation Commission Pavalingam Kanagaratnam, Local Government and Provincial Council Minister Faiszer Musthapa and his Ministry Secretary Kamal Pathmasiri. He sought an assurance from them that the Local Government elections would be held in January next year and the Provincial Councils before March, also next year.<\/p>\n

As revealed later in these columns, some of the provisions in the new law would lead to a time consuming exercise thus obviating an early PC poll. One example is the appointment of a five member Delimitation Committee within two weeks of the Bill becoming law by the President to \u201cdivide each administrative district into such number of electorates as corresponds to 50% of the total number of members to be elected from such administrative district.\u201d The President will appoint the Chairman and the five persons will represent the \u201cpluralistic character of Sri Lankan society, including professional and social diversity\u201d by an order published in the gazette.<\/p>\n

The Committee shall assign names to each electorate in the division of the administrative districts. Where it appears to the Committee that there is, in any area of an administrative district, a substantial concentration of persons united by a community of interest, whether racial, religious or otherwise, but differing in one or more of respects from the majority of the inhabitants of the area, the Committee may make such division of the administrative districts into electorates. In making such division, the Committee has been asked to pay due regard to (a) the desirability of reducing to the minimum the disproportion in the number of persons resident in the several electorates of the administrative districts within the Province, and (2) the geographical and physical features of the electorates. The Committee has also been vested with powers to create constituencies which will be entitled to return more than one member.<\/p>\n

The provision to have a new Delimitation Committee has also raised an issue. Speaker Jayasuriya, according to Parliament sources, met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to urge him to give the task to the existing constitutionally empowered National Commission for Delimitation. These sources said Jayasuriya said it would be an \u201cinsult to the Constitution\u201d if a separate Delimitation Committee is appointed. He had said that if there was a requirement, two more members could be added. The Premier had agreed to consider the matter, the sources added.<\/p>\n

A \u2018Joint Opposition\u2019 delegation led by its parliamentary group leader Dinesh Gunawardena also met Premier Wickremesinghe to protest against the manner in which the amendments were being rushed. The Premier had replied that it was urgent Government business and had to be taken up. He quipped, perhaps in humour, that they now knew how to take up such urgent business.<\/p>\n

Under the new law, the Delimitation Committee which has been legally tasked to \u201cendeavour to arrive at a consensus in dealing with matters\u201d is to be called upon to submit its report to the Minister within two weeks of the receipt of such report and table it in Parliament for its approval by not less than a two thirds majority. If there is no such approval within one month, the Speaker has been empowered to appoint a Review Committee of five persons headed by the Prime Minister. Such a Committee will have the power to cause any alteration to names, numbers and boundaries of any electorate. Thereafter, the President is empowered to issue a Proclamation publishing the new number of electorates.<\/p>\n

Thus, with this new development, PC elections this year for the three councils could not be held as planned by the Election Commission. As a result there is uncertainty now over the time period. This is notwithstanding Speaker Jayasuriya\u2019s plea to the Chairman of the Election Commission to conduct the local polls in January next year and the PC polls before March of the same year.<\/p>\n

Issues over this also came to the fore when political party representatives met Speaker Jayasuriya last Tuesday to discuss parliamentary business for the week. When both the UNP and SLFP (pro Sirisena) representatives said they wanted to place on the Order Paper for Wednesday the Provincial Councils Elections Bill together with a string of amendments, Minister Rauff Hakeem, leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), was enraged. He charged that the Government (of which his party is a constituent member) was trying to postpone elections. He said it was \u201cundemocratic and unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was to invite a barrage of criticism. Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, one of three representing the SLFP, said what they were discussing was Government business. It took precedence over other matters. The other two members were Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva and Sarath Amunugama who backed Samarasinghe. The UNP\u2019s main representative, House Leader and Minister Lakshman Kiriella, who supported Samarasinghe\u2019s position, explained that their move was part of a larger agenda and had no sinister motives. Like in elections to local bodies, they needed to have a system for PCs too. This was why they had proposed PC polls in one day and called for a mixed electoral system earlier.<\/p>\n

Hakeem charged that both Samarasinghe and Kiriella were trying to \u201cbulldoze their way through.\u201d He asked \u201chow can we debate this?\u201d Samarasinghe laughed off the remarks and replied that the amendments would be available the next (Wednesday) morning and Hakeem could see them. Tamil National Alliance frontliner M.A. Sumanthiran charged that Hakeem only looked at himself and did not see \u201cthe larger picture.\u201d He noted \u201cif we wanted, we could have a Tamil Chief Minister.\u201d He was alluding to the Eastern Province where the Chief Minister is Nazeer Ahmed from the SLMC. <\/p>\n

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake pointed to Hakeem and declared that the SLMC had contested under an alliance (United National Front) on the basis of a list put forward by the alliance. The remark suggested that being in the alliance the SLMC could not now articulate a different position. At the end of the discussion, Speaker Jayasuriya agreed that the Bill could be listed and debated on Thursday.<\/p>\n

It was not only Hakeem who was unhappy. His political rival Rishad Bathiuddin, leader of the Sri Lanka Makkal Katchi (or People\u2019s Party) was also strongly opposed to the debating of the Bill. Some UNPers believed Hakeem had followed suit for fear that his party would be isolated from the stance taken by Bathiuddin. Hence he joined in the protest. On Tuesday night, they met Premier Wickremesinghe at \u2018Temple Trees\u2019 to discuss the situation. He had appealed to them not to go ahead on an issue on which there is general agreement.<\/p>\n

By Thursday, the Bill came before Parliament. Yet, both Hakeem and Bathiuddin had not changed their mind. There were parliamentarians representing up country electorates who were supporting their position. At one point, SLMC members withdrew from Parliament. Opposition MPs complained on Thursday that some of the amendments the Government wanted to introduce were unconstitutional. <\/p>\n

It was around noon when Speaker Jayasuriya had a meeting with Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya. The AG had opined that the Bill and the proposed amendments required a two thirds majority vote for passage in Parliament. He was also of the view that the amending legislation need not be placed before Provincial Councils for approval. Thereafter, UNP and SLFP (pro-Sirisena group) leaders redoubled their efforts to muster a two thirds vote.<\/p>\n

This is whilst Premier Wickremesinghe continued his negotiations with those opposed to the Bill. He also kept telephoning Sirisena in New York to keep him updated. Thereafter, Sirisena took over, engaging in long-distance telephone diplomacy. He began calling Hakeem, Bathiuddin and TNA leader R. Sampanthan. To some, he made more than one telephone call to appeal for help and thus won the day. As one Cabinet Minister described \u201cPresident Sirisena was the man of the match and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was the best batsman. The issue was resolved.\u201d He said by late Thursday afternoon with no settlement in sight, they had to persuade their parliamentary colleagues to make speeches until matters were resolved. Some even lengthened their speeches to buy time.<\/p>\n

The minority parties also won a concession. The President was to give them an assurance that their interests would not be jeopardised. One concession has already been extended. In terms of electoral arrangements for PCs, it was originally decided that there should be 60 percent elected on the first-past-the-post system and the remainder through the proportional representation system. It has now been changed to 50 % in each case. That raising of the cut off point gives the smaller parties the chance of having more members under proportional representation. <\/p>\n

Another area where agreement was reached was to conclude delimitation of electorates within a province within four months instead of six.<\/p>\n


\nSome of the highlights of the amendments passed and now law are:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022\t<\/strong>Any recognised political party or any group of persons contesting as independent candidates may for the purpose of any election of members of Provincial Councils for any administrative district, submit two nomination papers setting out (a) the names of each candidate nominated in respect of each electorate (Electorate List) and (b) the names of additional candidates in respect of such administrative district as is equivalent to the number of additional members entitled to be elected from such administrative district (District List).<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022\t<\/strong>Where an equality of votes is found to exist between any two or more recognised political parties or two or more independent groups, and the addition of a vote would entitle the nominated candidate of one such recognised political party or independent group to be elected as the Member of such electorate, the determination of the recognised political party or independent group to which such additional vote shall be deemed to have been given, shall be made by lot drawn in the presence of the chief counting officer, in such manner as he shall determine.<\/p>\n


\n\u2022\t<\/strong>Additional members elected for all the electorates of the administrative district shall be apportioned in the manner provided for \u2013 The total number of valid votes received by all the candidates of each recognised political party and independent group in the administrative district shall be divided by the total number of members to be elected and returned to Provincial Council from such Administrative District. The numbers resulting from such division shall be referred to as \u201cthe qualifying number.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\u2022\t<\/strong>The aggregate of the votes received by the candidates of each recognised political party and independent group in the respective electorates shall then be divided by the qualifying number, in order to ascertain the number of persons entitled to be elected and returned as members of the Provincial Council, from such Administrative District. Where the number ascertained by this method is an integer and a fraction, the integer shall be deemed to be the number.<\/p>\n

\u2022\t<\/strong>There remain a further number of members to be returned under the proportional representation system, such remaining number shall be allocated on the basis of the highest fraction received by each recognised political party or independent group.<\/p>\n


\n\u2022\t<\/strong>The Commissioner (now the Chairman of the Elections Commission) shall ensure that twenty five per centum of the total number of members to be elected and returned from each administrative district within a Province shall be women members; provided that, where the number constituting twenty five per centum of the total number of members is an integer and fraction, the integer shall be deemed to be the number which shall constitute twenty five per centum. A Provincial Council constituted in terms of this Act, shall not be deemed to be unlawful only by virtue of an inability to comply with.<\/em><\/p>\n

As is clear from this week\u2019s developments, coalition leaders were confident they could seek the passage of 20A without a referendum. They hoped this would empower them to further delay the PC polls. The SC determination clearly paved the way for the Election Commission to conduct polls to the three Provincial Councils whose terms would have ended this month. That was not to be. The coalition leaders beefed up the Provincial Council Elections (Amendment) Bill to buy time indefinitely. It is also clear that those minority parties which raised strong objections relented and accepted the assurances of Sirisena to address their grievances. Thus, they won a two thirds vote which the Attorney General said was necessary.<\/p>\n

A little known fact was Arumugam Thondaman, leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress, and Muthu Sivalingam of the UPFA, voted in favour of the Amendment. Both are parliamentarians from the Nuwara Eliya district.
\nA silver lining for the coalition over this week\u2019s events is the rapprochement between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP). What President Sirisena wished, his Prime Minister Wickremesinghe delivered. Whether such a joint exercise will be a stepping stone for a \u2018kiss and make up\u2019 in the long term remains a critical question.Of course many a hurdle stands in the way. Whether the latest rapprochement is only a temporary tryst or one that is long lasting only time will reveal.<\/p>\n

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

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By The “Sunday Times” Political Editor Hopes of elections this year to three Provincial Councils \u2013 North Central, Sabaragamuwa and Eastern \u2013 were buoyed by last Tuesday\u2019s announcement of the Supreme Court determination, but evaporated just hours later. Ruling coalition leaders, not in favour of PC polls, adopted other counter measures that will now cause …<\/p>\n

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