With Presidential Elections only a few months away there is a sudden focus on a different type of elections- Provincial Council (PC) elections. Elections to these bodies are long overdue but are mired in a complex legal process which prevents them from being conducted.
The last provincial polls in the country were held in 2013 when Mahinda Rajapaksa was President. Rajapaksa made a fine art of conducting provincial elections, staggering them in such a way that it was beneficial to him and his party.
The only provincial elections that Rajapaksa hesitated to conduct was to elect representatives to the Northern Provincial Council and it is no secret that New Delhi had to exert considerable pressure on the Rajapaksa government to get this done. Although Rajapaksa dragged his feet as much as possible, even those polls were held for the first time in 2013.
Rajapaksa held elections to two or three PCs at a time, picking and choosing which councils would go to polls together. State resources were diverted to those selected councils and his party never lost. When elections to all the councils had been concluded, Rajapaksa’s party was in control of all except the Northern Province.
His opponents criticise him for this, but it was a political strategy he resorted to and as incumbent President he was entitled to do so. Given the scenario today, Rajapaksa will argue that elections being held are better than no elections at all and it would be difficult to disagree.
The current impasse has arisen because of the Provincial Councils (Amendment) Act No. 17 of 2017 passed in Parliament on September 20, 2017. Lest it be forgotten, this legislation was passed with a two-thirds majority in Parliament, so a section of the Opposition too supported it wholeheartedly.
The new legislation paved the way for two key changes: mandating that at least 25 per cent of PC representatives are females and adopting a ‘mixed’ representation system where representatives are elected both for constituencies as well as a quota of them on a proportional basis.
The latter marked a radical change from the previously adopted proportional representation (PR) system. It also meant that constituencies had to be re-demarcated through a delimitation commission. Herein lies the snag. The demarcation process has been bogged down in a quagmire of bureaucratic red tape, preventing the conduct of the elections.
Similar changes were made to the laws governing local government elections. The last local government elections, conducted in February 2018, were held under the new system. It exposed many deficiencies and difficulties of the new system. As a result, the authorities- and political parties- are having second thoughts as to whether the PC polls should be modelled on the same ‘hybrid’ system.
The Government has two options: now that new legislation has been passed governing the PC elections, it can conduct elections according to those laws- which means, work relating to the delimitation of constituencies needs to be expedited, though it is not something that can be done within a short period.
Alternatively, the Government can conduct elections under the previous system; but now that new legislation has been passed, it would have to revert to Parliament to have the new legislation annulled. Again, that too is not a task that could be achieved within a few weeks, particularly, in the current political climate where different political parties are pulling in different directions.
Understandably, it is the Opposition which wants elections. In this instance, it is the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the breakaway faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), better known as the ‘pohottuwa’ party which is demanding elections.
That is because the SLPP contested the 2018 Local Government elections and emerged clear winners, pushing the ruling United National Party (UNP) to a distant second place and condemning the SLFP into an ‘also ran’ party. The SLPP believes if PC elections are held now, it can repeat that success- and that would be the ideal launching pad for the Presidential and General Elections that must follow in the next few months.
The UNP has remained non-committal, making statements about the need to expedite provincial polls but in reality, doing little to achieve that. Its fears are exactly the opposite to those of the SLPP: a resounding defeat at the provincial polls similar to what it experienced at the local government elections last year would sound the death knell for its hopes at the Presidential Election.
The ruling party’s fears are understandable but that does not mean they are excusable. A political party must face up to elections which are a necessary evil of democracy. If a party is not able to face that challenge it has some serious soul searching to do- which is what the UNP must engage in now.
After months of silence, the SLFP- or, more accurately, President Maithripala Sirisena- too wants provincial council elections to be expedited. That is because he sees in these elections an opportunity for the SLFP and the SLPP to form an alliance and contest as a single entity. Such a move would cement his relations with the breakaway faction of the SLFP and secure his political future- or so the rationale goes.
Then there is the affable Chairman of the Elections Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya threatening to resign if PC polls are not held by November 10 this year. No one doubts the sincere intentions of the Chairman in trying to get the job done, but by setting himself a deadline that is unlikely to be met, it seems as if Deshapriya has bitten off more than he can chew, this time.
In the coming weeks and months, there will be many discussions, debates and finger pointing about why PC elections are not being held. The reality is that each political party is working towards its own agenda- and worrying about the Presidential Election instead of the provincial polls. The sooner the public- and Chairman Deshapriya- realise that, the better it would be for all.