Last Sunday we celebrated the new focus on capitalism at the grassroots and, this Sunday, we celebrate the introduction of a new electoral system at the grassroots.
We, Sri Lankans, will take a historic step into a new political system when we next cast our vote in elections for local government bodies, thanks to the new system ushered in with the amendment to the Local Authorities Ordinance passed by Parliament last Friday. We will, soon, be exercising our franchise according to a mixed voting system that meshes the first-past-the-post (FPP) method with the proportional representation (PR) method.
The amendment, passed by a comfortable majority in the House, is also historic for two other notable features: it re-demarcates local electoral wards to suit current demographics and, provides for a minimum representation of women in local bodies, thereby enabling women to – at last – begin having a say in the way things are done on this ‘resplendent isle’ of ours.
True to this government’s innovative bent, the proposed new political system starts, not at the top, but from the bottom up – with local government.
The new voting system at local government level will begin the complex process of shifting the country’s electoral system away from the highly controversial, rather simplistic proportional representation system that we have practised since PR was introduced in the late 1970s. After the new mixed system is tested in the next local government elections, it will be introduced at the provincial council level and, finally, at the national parliamentary level.
The PR system, when first introduced under President J. R. Jayewardene, was hailed as innovative, in that, it broadened the scope of elected representation by ensuring that smaller social interest groups could elect their own representational groups or political parties.
While smaller political parties, for the first time, entered the legislative process at all levels, minority social groups were also assured greater representation in governance.
But the PR system had its many drawbacks. The cumulative effect of these drawbacks was a politics of vicious rivalry among candidates on the one hand and, on the other, the dependence of candidates on money from all and sundry to support their election campaigning across the large electoral districts.
Hence, elections in Sri Lanka have become the battleground of personal politics, with many a murder, much thuggery and vandalising of rivals’ campaign resources.
The need for large election campaign budgets has, on the one side, marginalized poorer political activists and empowered richer ones. On the other side, the electoral success of those politicians able to attract wealthy donors or, donors aiming to wield power through their client politicians, has resulted in corruption beginning to pervade our systems of governance. Democratic politics began to become a conduit for governmental influence-peddling rather than a structure of genuine popular representation and socially beneficial governance.
Rather than fulfilling a ‘political compact’ with their voter constituencies, many elected politicians were seen busily fulfilling their ‘business compacts’ with those rich or powerful elements whose cash helped them contest and win elections. Successive new governments in recent times have promised to reform the election system.
The amendment to the Local Authorities Ordinance passed last week will be the first step in this long-awaited reform.
All those interested in the advancement of genuine democracy in Sri Lanka will be equally exultant over the new compulsory quota for women candidates provided for by last Friday’s amendment. The amendment stipulates that local government bodies should ensure that a minimum 25 per cent of candidates are women candidates.
Sri Lanka now catches up with the rest of South Asia in this historic first step towards ensuring that our women citizens will begin to have a greater say in the governance of their society. Most other SAARC countries have already provided for such quotas that ensure the minimum representation of women in their legislatures.
Sri Lanka’s entire legislative structure, at all levels, cannot boast of more than a mere 5 per cent participation of women in governance. This is despite women having long been our biggest foreign income generators – whether labouring away in the plantations or, garment factories or, as migrant labour in West Asia.
The exercise of ‘universal franchise’ alone has been shown to be wholly inadequate in ensuring that all citizens in a society have equal ability to participate in governance or in the political system at large. Given the gender-biased and restrictive social practices and community traditions that permeate South Asian society, it has not been surprising that women, the lower castes and other marginalized social segments have been kept at a distance from the locus of power and decision-making.
Thus, social upliftment has needed institutional and structural support for such social groups to fully enjoy modern social life. Just as much as state-aided welfare systems have helped economically deprived sections, institutional reservations and representative quotas are useful tools to ensure politically marginalized sections to participate more in social and political management.
It is to be hoped that the Elections Commission will now be provided all resources and facilities to implement this historic legislation.