Parliament in Sri Lanka seems to pass
extremely important bills, and the populace appear clueless of their existence
thanks to the Media that did not report it in the papers today. Who is to
blame? In this case it was in the order
paper of Parliament but the media either chose not to pick on it, or the
reporters did not believe it was newsworthy enough to report on. However the consequences
of its passing affect every citizen in the country. Now the Local Authorities
have the power to elect 70% of the officials on a ward based system on a first
past the post basis, and up to a maximum of 30% by the use of the PR method.
It is not as simple as it sounds as
there are provisions that affect how the 30% are chosen not as the loser with
the highest number of votes at that particular authority and in that order, but
by the General Secretary of the party having complete autonomy as to who he chooses
to put on the list and the order of preference he chooses.
This has diabolical consequences at the
local level, where the Electoral Organizer does not necessarily have any power
to appoint local people of his choice in this and may have to submit to higher
authority in the party to a person or persons not of his choosing. These people
may even oppose him, and so he will be in an unenviable situation where he will
have councilors in his local area with whom he may not see eye to eye and who have
no following at all in the local area or any base in terms of vote. They are not
people (similar to National List MPs) who have ANY political support but are merely
appointees due to some favor they have provided to whoever has the power to submit
their names to this list.
I have not looked into all the provisions
of the Bill (now ACT) but this is just one glaring anomaly that the presenters of
the bill wish to pass unnoticed and as this requires a two thirds majority to pass
an Amendment to an Act, it is unlikely that it will be changed for a long time,
even if we find obvious inconsistencies in it and faults. This kind of surreptitious
passing of laws is not helpful in this democracy.
People must have the right to debate the
proposed bills and air their grievances and let the power know their suggestions.
However in our democracy it appears that people’s choice is only for the General
Election, and after that they elected representatives DO NOT need to consult the
populace in their decisions.
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