High drama unfolded when the Appeals Committee on Delimitation tried to hand over their final report to Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Faizer Mustapha, last week.
The Minister and the Committee Chairman traded verbal blows, passing the ball into each other’s court, accusing the other of dragging feet, and thereby delaying the Local Government elections. The report was supposed to have been submitted in April 2016. The drama, which questioned the ethics of all involved, unfolded right in front of TV cameras, leaving the viewers disgusted. The polls to some local government bodies have lapsed for over 18 months, now. The Opposition political parties, including the JVP and the Joint Opposition claim, the operations of some of the ‘term expired’ local bodies are in utter chaos. These are functions closely knitted with the daily lives of the common masses in their locality. They play a major role in repairing roads, collecting garbage, overseeing a large network of state funded nursery schools. With no resolution in sight, the national polls monitoring body PAFFREL filed an FR case in the Supreme Court, in September 2016, to compel the Government to hold the LG polls. However, the appointment of the Asoka Peiris Appeals Committee in January 2016 was welcomed by political parties, since there were ‘major discrepancies’ in the National Delimitation Committee report prepared during the former regime. The JVP alleged, the demarcation of wards had been done in a manner to reinforce Mahinda Rajapaksa’s continuation in Government. The minority parties cried the new boundaries were discriminatory.
Dragged on
The Appeals Committee headed by former Commissioner General of Lands, Asoka Peiris, was expected to look into the grievances, objections and appeals against the National Delimitation Committee Report that was gazetted. The other members of the committee were, United National Party’s A.S.M. Misbah, Sri Lanka Freedom Party’s K. Saliya, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s Upul Kumaraperuma and the Tamil National Alliance’s Prof.B. Balasundarampillai.
 Mahinda Deshapriya |
The Committee was given time till April 10 last year, to look into the grievances and wrap up their work. Yet, their work dragged on, and finally, the Chairman spoke out recently, accusing the main coalition partners of the government, the SLFP and the UNP for the delay, claiming that the Government was expecting the Committee to drag its feet.
Since last year the reason given for the polls delay was the delay in the Appeals Committee report. The Government, in view of the demarcation issues, kept postponing the elections, ruling out any chance of conducting polls under the old system, even amid heavy pressure from the Joint Opposition.
Soon after assuming office in 2015, the Government stressed, that the LG polls will be held under a new, mixed electoral system, combining the PR system and the first past the post system, after issues with regard to demarcation of new wards were finalized. But, the Joint Opposition alleged, the reason for the delay was the fear of defeat for Government parties.
At first, LG polls was to be scheduled for June last year. Subsequently however, there were announcements by Government Ministers that elections will be delayed till December 2016. The latest announcement on a possible polls date was made by the Elections Commission Chairman, Mahinda Deshapriya last Friday, who said, if the Delimitation Appeals Committee report is gazetted within this week, the elections could be held by May 2017.
The previous week, the national election monitor CaFFE said, the Asoka Peiris Committee was ready to hand over their report to Minister Mustapha, but that the Minister has scheduled an overseas pilgrimage during the same period. They appealed not to further delay the process and urged the report to be submitted to the Provincial Council and Local Government State Minister Priyankara Jayaratne, in Minister Mustapha’s absence, so the process could move on.
The Secretary of the Local Government Ministry could take action to gazette the report and set off the election machinery, CaFFE pointed out. However, in a strange turn of events the State Minister tendered his resignation to President Maithripala Sirisena, last week.
On Monday, Minister Mustapha arranged a media briefing and said, he cut short his pilgrimage and arrived in the country to accept the Asoka Peiris report. But, when he learned that only three members have signed the report he refused to accept it, sparking off another argument between the committee chairman and himself.
The media, covering the event, showing annoyance questioned whether the Minister was not aware of this fact until the eleventh hour, demanding reasons for wasting their time.
 Asoka T. Peries |
The Committee chairman maintained that the report was valid since it has been signed by a majority, and there was no need to seek signatures of the other two members. The Minister said, he had to verify this. A senior official at the Election Commission said, the existing law was silent on the matter.
At a loss
As of today, a fourth member, from the SLFP, had placed his signature on the report. It would be a matter of days when the report is submitted to the Minister. It seems, everything has come to an end, four members have signed the report, except the UNP member, A.S.M. Misbah. Chairman Asoka Peiris who was on his way to office, when the Sunday Observer contacted him on Friday, said, he and the other members of the committee decided to re-submit the report to Minister Mustapha with just four signatures, as it constituted a majority.
They were set to hand it over at 10.30 am on Friday, provided, the Minister was willing to accept it minus the signature of the UNP member. (However, the Sunday Observer learnt that the report was not submitted to the Minister even on Friday. A press release issued by the Minister on Friday evening confirmed this.)
The Chairman said, they were at a loss as to why the SLFP and UNP members wanted more time to study the report when they had been involved in preparing it, every step of the way. However, the story will not end once the Minister accepts the Asoka Peiris report.
Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya told the Sunday Observer, to hold the elections three more outstanding issues must be resolved by Minister Mustapha.
The first is, to gazette the Appeals Committee report, then reconstitute the local bodies announcing the number of members to be elected under the wards system and the PR system. In addition, a third gazette notification needs to be issued, specifying the number of women candidates to be nominated and appointed to each body. The new Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Act No.1 of 2016, provides for the appointment of 25% women members to a council.
“He can do it in one go, or issue separate gazette notifications for the three outstanding issues, and, only then can the Elections Commission go ahead with preparations for the LG elections,”the Chairman added.