With the proposed 18^th amendment to the constitution the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government has inflicted a severe blow to the electoral process of Sri Lanka. Since the new amendment gives the executive President the power to appoint members to the ‘independent’ commissions, including the Election Commission, CaFFE fears that the future elections will be far from free and fair.

 The reforms replace the present 10 member Constitutional Council (CC) with a five-member committee comprising the Speaker, the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition as ex officio (by right of office ) members. Unlike the existing CC which appoints members to the seven independent commissions the new five member committee will only be consulted by the president who has the power to appoint members to the independent commissions. (Read More)

Campaign for Free and Fair Election (CaFFE) yesterday charged that the proposed 18th Amendment to the constitution would inflict a severe blow to Sri Lanka’s democracy because the new amendment allowed the president to appoint members to the ‘Independent’ Commissions.

CaFFE spokesman Keerthi Tennakoon said the reforms replaced the present 10-member Constitutional Council (CC) with a five-member committee comprising the Speaker, the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition as ex officio members but eventually the president would have the final say in appointments to the independent commissions.

“The new five-member committee will only be consulted by the president who will have the power to appoint members to the independent commissions including the elections commission,” he said.(Read More)

A referendum should be held in addition to approval by a two-thirds majority in parliament for the proposed Constitutional amendments to come into force, several petitioners claimed in the Supreme Court yesterday. 

The intervening petitioners sought a referendum in addition to the envisaged two-thirds majority vote in parliament for the proposed constitutional amendments, when the amendments were taken up for determination before the five-member Supreme Court bench yesterday. 

The special Supreme Court bench comprised Justices Shirani A. Bandaranayake, K. Sripavan, P.A.Ratnayake, S.I.Imam and R.K.Suresh Chandra.

“The proposed Amendments to the Constitution which seek to alter the number of terms limit of the Executive Presidency consist of several amendments which purportedly give unfettered dictatorial power. Hence it should be approved by Majority in Parliament and get the people’s assent by a referendum,” President’s Counsel Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne appearing for two intervenient petitioners,

Attorney-at-law Lal Wijenayake and Chandra Jayaratne,  submitted, when the proposed Bill, presented to Court as an urgent Bill, was taken up for its determination. (Read More)

The Cabinet yesterday approved the new Local Government Elections (Amendment) Bill which provides for the conducting of polls under a mix of the present proportional representation system and the first-past-the-post system.

According to the proposals one-third of the members will be elected to local bodies under the PR system while the rest will be on the first-past-the-post system. As the law stands today, the local council heads have powers to approve the annual budgets of their councils even after they are rejected by the majority of councillors during the vote.................. (Read More)

The Cabinet is expected to tomorrow consider a special memorandum dealing with the constitutional amendment lifting the two-term restriction on the office of president as well as changes to the 17th Amendment, authoritative governmental sources said yesterday.

With the two thirds majority wrapped-up, the government intends having the draft Bill presented to Parliament on Sept. 8.

Senior cabinet sources confirmed that the Chief Government Whip, Mr. Dinesh Gunawardena, had circularized the 147 members of the government parliamentary group not to leave the country or fix any engagements during the next fortnight as their presence in parliament will be essential.

The proposed changes are also due to be presented for endorsement to the 59th annual convention of the SLFP to be held at Temple Trees on Sept. 2.

Meanwhile several opposition political parties including the UNP, DNA, TNA and some members of civil society intend challenging the proposed changes before the Supreme Court urging that the proposed amendments affect the franchise of the people and require approval at a referendum.

The legislation is to be presented as an urgent Bill with the president referring it to the Supreme Court for an opinion on its constitutionality. Such an opinion must be tendered to the speaker within two days of the reference.

UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha said that the government was confident of the two-third majority.

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Revision of the voter registry 2010 

Although nearly three months have passed since the Department of Elections began the 2010 Revision of the voter registry only 30 Grama Niladari Divisions out of 435 have completed the house-to-house enumeration exercise which is the basis of the revision.

Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) has noted that the Department of Elections has not taken action to step up the process despite constant reminders. Not a single Grama Niladari Division in the Kankasanthurei, Manipay, Kopai and Chawakachcheri electorates have completed the house-to-house enumeration exercise. Only five out of 51 Grama Niladari divisions in Kytes, five out of 28 Grama Niladari divisions in Jaffna, three out of 40 Grama Niladari divisions in Nallur, four GN divisions out of 39 in the Wadukkodei, seven GN divisions out of 45 in Point Pedro and six GN divisions out of 44 in Udupiddi have completed the exercise.  

The voter registry revision began on June 01^st, 2010 and was set to end on August 15th, 2010. Due to the slow progress in the North and the some parts of the East the deadline has been extended by another two months. Because of civil war a proper revision of the voter registries has not occurred in many parts of Jaffna and Vanni districts. Although department of elections officials conduct such revisions in other parts of the country during the months of June and July this has not happened in the North for many years.

In a previous visit to the North CaFFE highlighted various issues faced by the Grama Niladaris and election officers in the North, lack of adequate resources including manpower, lack of proper training and incentives to complete the voter registration, the Department of Elections has not taken necessary steps for the successful completion of the voter registry revision.  

A proper voter registry is essential for a free and fair election and it is imperative that the government rebuilds the trust in the electoral process in citizens of Jaffna.

Peoples Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL) said yesterday that people living in temporary residences were hindering the process of registering voters.

PAFFREL Director Rohana Hettiarachchi said that the registration of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) would continue until they were permanently resettled. He said that there were bound to be problems in this regard as a number of people did not want to be resettled anywhere else but in their previous homes. (Read More)

The Elections Secretariat has decided to omit from the 2010 electoral register,   the names of voters in the Jaffna district who have left the country during the conflict period. Elections authorities are currently enumerating the voters to prepare the electoral list for 2010.

According to the 2008 electoral register  there had been 722,000 registered voters in the Jaffna district.

In the 2009 register this had increased to 816,000.  However, many of them now live outside the country.

The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), said yesterday that the actual number of voters staying in Jaffna could be placed roughly at 400,000.