Accepting the blame for the delay in releasing the results of the February 10 local government elections last week, the Election Commission (EC) Chairman said, there were more important issues the people and the legislators should be concerned about than bashing the EC.
“For example,” Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said,”nearly half of the councils are hung councils and there needs to be some sort of conciliatory political unions for their proper functioning.”
The Local government bodies are scheduled to be constituted on March 6.
The Election Commission is expected to issue the letter that will precede the government gazette notice naming the Council members, by March 20, the Chairman said.
The SLPP grabbed power through independent groups in Beruwala, Bandarawela, Maharagama and Mahiyanganaya. It was told that the transfer of power by the independent group members to the SLPP will be a lengthy process. Until March 6 the elected candidate will not be considered as a Council Member. The resignations will be valid only once they become a member. And, if the independent members choose not to resign, nothing can be done to remove them.
But, if they resign the Leader of the Independent Group can appoint fresh members to the Council to fill vacant seats.
In addition, fulfilling the mandatory 25% quota for women members will also stand in the way to constitute the Council. “The parties with overhung seats, will not be able to accommodate more female members, other than the ones already elected.”
Therefore, in case of a party that should have three female members but has only one elected female member, the other parties in the Council are compelled to appoint the two excess females to pass the legal barrier. It may contribute to exceed their 25% Party quota. “However much we support the 25% rule this is not fair by those parties,” the Commission Chairman said. The new law on Local Government election requires females to constitute 25% of the total number of members in the Council.
He said, the Election Commission members pointed out this flaw in the new electoral system at the time but his officers were shrugged off as being pessimistic.
Deputy Commissioner M.M.Mohamed said they may have to turn to the Municipal Council Ordinance, Urban Council Ordinance and the Pradeshiya Sabha Act No 15 of 1987 to constitute the councils and overcome the legal barriers created by the new LG electoral system, thus the current chaotic situation.
In response to the allegations that the EC was deliberately delaying the release of poll results, Deshapriya said, the Commission released the results at ‘Wards’ level starting from 8.pm on election day itself and the contesting parties and independent groups through their respective Poll Agents at counting centres came to know the results before midnight. “It is a deliberate distortion of facts to say the results were delayed due to conspiracy or threats by some party.”
He said, the Commission confronted unforeseen issues at the time of processing the results through a software developed by the Kelaniya University. “I would not blame the developers of the software for the mishap, it was something that could have happened anytime.”
The Election Commission teamed up with the Colombo University in previous elections to release the results to the media.
But, in 2015 due to unfair allegations against certain people at the Colombo University involved with the task of digitally processing the results to be issued to the media, the Commission took a decision to seek assistance from the Kelaniya University this time.
He said, the electronic media heads wanted the results under the Council level and they undertook the difficult task to process the Wards results and release them.
“If not for the software issue and the undertaking to the media heads, we could have released the unprocessed results from 8. pm,” the Chairman said.
“But only the media and the ‘facebook-people’ were overly worried about the delay, not the political parties or the people,” he said.
Upon invitation by the Election Commission, representatives from three main political parties, Ashu Marasinghe from UNP, Champani Padmasekera from SLFP and Sagara Kariyawasam and Renuka Perera from the SLPP were at the Election Commission premises at Sarana Road, Rajagiriya when the election results were received from the counting centres on February 10.
After some results were released the representatives from the SLFP and the UNP retired for the day whereas the agents from the SLPP continued to monitor the results in flow, Deshapriya said, adding that the allegations being levelled against him and his staff were highly amusing.
“No person who makes the mistake of threatening me in my own office will leave unharmed,” he said.
“Now that it is over, I am neither happy nor unhappy about the election, this election gave nothing to the people other than democracy.
We played a role in delivering democracy to the people. We fulfilled our responsibility and I am happy for that.”
The Commission Chairman said, there were shortcomings in the electoral system that needs to be looked into and corrected. He said, the best electoral system would have been a system with a 100% Proportional Representation.
The current system has been evolved with a combination of 60% First Past the Post and the 40% Proportional Representation.
He said, the legislators debated and adopted the new electoral system in the House, therefore the Commission by its mandate must hold elections in accordance.