Sri Lanka is to spend nearly Rs.7 billion (Rs.7,000 million) on the upcoming Parliamentary Election that would see many of the country’s 16,263,885 eligible voters marching to the polling station to elect a total of 196 candidates to Parliament. The rest of the 225 members in the House will be appointed from the national list.
Sri Lanka puts its freedoms and democratic values in high esteem. This is showcased by having a major election almost every year.
The National Elections Commission held the Local Government Election in February 2018, the Presidential Election in November 2019 and now the General Election is scheduled for April 25, 2020. The Provincial Council Elections, already delayed by a couple of years due to a legal hitch, is next in line and most likely be held this year.
The General Election this time is six months early. The last was held in August 2015 and the next, should have been held by July this year. Adding to the already existing woes, the 19th Amendment reduced the term of office of the Parliament to five from the earlier six years in a measure that would serve only politicians, according to popular belief.
Like in many countries, the political culture in Sri Lanka is such a newly elected president has to appoint his government soon. If not, every effort is made to destabilise the country and oust the newly elected. The conspiracies start even before the new president gets elected.
Election Commission (EC) Chairman Mahinda Deshapria said they were still waiting for the Treasury to release Rs.300 million balance payments for the Presidential Election. It is the last tranche and will be issued to settle dues for government agencies such as the Postal and Police Departments.
A senior accounting officer at the EC said the Presidential Election expenses have now been finalised indicating Rs.5 billion as costs for the November 2019 election. The Presidential Election is the cheapest in terms of expenses but in the last election there were more costs due to the record number of 35 candidates, 16 more than the 2015 Presidential Election. Salaries and allowances to the official staff account for nearly 40% of election costs and at the last election a 300,000 strong staff was on poll duty.
Although Rs.7 billion has been forecasted, the actual costs for the upcoming Parliamentary Election is expected to be around Rs. 6 million. Election funds are released to the Commission’s account by the Treasury in many instalments after costs are incurred and the details submitted.
“We don’t get a penny more,” the senior accounting officer said. He said the Treasury Operations Branch deposits the funds to the EC account on a monthly basis.
He classified, expenses on fuel, vehicle rentals and staff payments as major expenditure while expenses on ballot boxes, ink and printing as minor ones. “The expenses to remove posters and cut outs used to be very high in the past but during the last election, this came down drastically,” the senior officer said.
We saw a major drop in the use of posters and cut outs in the last Presidential Election, he said. But in the General Election, a surge may be witnessed, due to inter-intra party fights over preferential votes and costs to remove them, which involves payments to local bodies and the police.
“If EC had powers, we could have stopped this waste of money. There is a right to organise and contest in an election, it is a question of democracy. We can’t ban anyone from contesting, but we can increase the deposits and regulate this sector,” Deshapriya said.
He said, if a particular party cannot secure at least 1% of the votes cast in the election, there is an issue if that party should remain in the list of recognised political parties and this is a view expressed by many but the EC as an independent body wished to remain silent over such issues.He highlighted that it is the duty of the legislators to pass necessary laws to address such problems. Civil society, media and the public must consistently push for reforms in this sector, without waiting to make a hue and cry only when there is an election round the corner.
National Organiser, Centre For Mnotitoring Election Violence Manjula Gajanayake said over 5,000 candidates are expected to contest the General Election from political parties and independent groups this time.
It is unfortunate that the EC has not mentioned any measures to bring down election expenses in their recently unveiled Strategic Plan, he said adding that it was high time that Sri Lanka shifted from manual electioneering to a digital format to spare the masses of a stupendous election bill.
“The EC could also seek help from their regional partners like, FEMBoSA and ANFREL to identify gaps and challenges,” he said.
The CMEV said it will be a good strategy to make the political parties too to make deposits to contest the election given that ninety per cent of the candidates will be fielded by registered political parties.
According to the Parliamentary Elections Act, only the independent groups are required to make nomination deposits which is Rs.2,000 for each candidate.