Good governance through productive electoral reforms

By Bernard Fernando

It is evident that the Government is still short of setting up a robust system for good governance through electoral reforms. In the circumstances, arising from my presentation to the ‘Public Committee on Constitutional Reforms’, I wish to enlist my recommendations and high light the benefits accruing therefrom to the country through the following electoral reforms most of which can be introduced without going for a referendum.

1) Repeal the infamous, optional ‘Preference Voting System’ and bring back the district merit list of nominees (please also refer 3 c below). Accordingly, there will be no need for aspiring MPs who will be at the top of the administration ‘pyramid’ to collect ‘preference votes’ by resorting to unethical and extravagant measures. Therefore, they need not be allocated with ‘decentralised funds’. On the contrary, they should monitor the usage and recommend the allocation and release of decentralised funds to the lower layers of the pyramid at Provincial Council (PC) and Pradeshiya Sabha (PS) level. The existing monitoring mechanism through district development committees should be reviewed to facilitate a ‘bottom-up’ approach.

2) The present decentralised political administration structure should be made more productive by specifically laying down the role responsibilities and limits for the respective layers in the pyramid viz. the Parliament, PCs and PSs, avoiding overlapping job roles. In our view, there is a need to reduce the powers of MPs who are mainly ‘law-makers’ and transfer them to the PCs and PSs which in the process should get more mileage from the media as they are closer to the public than the national level MPs.

3) National Election Process

a. The primary and the most critical need at a national election process is to determine the winner and the number of seats won by each party/alliance out of 225 seats in the Parliament. It can be guaranteed, only by applying proportionate arithmetic to the total valid national vote considering the entire country as one electorate thereby ensuring an equal value for all valid votes. This will obviate the need for laborious and costly delimitation exercises before a national election.

b.Next is the district-wise allocation of seats out of the total number of seats won by each party/alliance. It also can be done by applying proportionate arithmetic to district-wise number of votes mustered by each party/alliance.

c.Thereafter, nominating MPs to each district will be automatic as district wise nomination lists in merit order are already publicised by each party/alliance. Presently, this list is furnished in the alphabetical order to cover 196 seats. For good governance and logical purposes, this list needs to be seen by the voter in the order of merit so that he will get an idea of the calibre and the quality of the persons who are likely to represent him in the National Parliament. The real objective of the ‘National List’ (29) too can be achieved by including those nominations also in the district lists so that one can visualise one master nomination list of professional politicians fielded by each party/alliance sub-divided into 22 or 25 districts. The nominating parties/alliances may be allowed to add three or four extra nominees (also in merit order) to the bottom of their each district merit nomination lists to provide for resignations/deaths/expulsions. Thus, the sole responsibility of selecting professional nominees in merit order will fully devolve on the respective parties/alliances and not on the voter. For this purpose, as corporate bodies, they should evolve a transparent, structured interview system acceptable to the people, to select their nominees. They should possess the discipline and clout to select and deal with their nominees under a well-designed system of ‘good governance and transparent mechanisms. The voter will take into account the quality, character and efficiency of such nominees who have to implement the party manifesto and action plans as a team in the event of victory. As a result of having a merit list, the ballot paper will carry only party/alliance symbols and the Elections Department will have less work in the counting process enabling the people to know the election results before midnight!

4) As aforesaid, in a modern representative democracy the voter expects the political parties to be corporate bodies with ability to produce powerful manifestos and pragmatic action plans for the party/alliance. Since the ‘election manifesto’ becomes critical for voter decision, it has to be made a legally-enforceable document.

5) With this district merit list in place, the ‘cross-over’ mockery also will die a natural death as in the event of death/resignation/expulsion of an MP, the next person in the merit list has to be automatically appointed. This in fact was the original mechanism laid down under JR’s Constitution till it got subverted by the present preference voting method. However, in our view this ‘crossover’ farce needs to be sealed constitutionally without leaving any legal loopholes.

6) To reach the zenith of the good governance process, apply PR arithmetic to allocate Cabinet portfolios (numbering 30 already specified by constitution), so that all seat winning parties will be represented in the Cabinet. This will ensure Cabinet portfolios to smaller parties like TNA and JVP and in the process, answer the promised ‘+’component of the much maligned 13th amendment which has become irreversible due to its international implications.

7)  The present provision for Parliament to increase the number of Cabinet portfolios at will should be replaced with a specific, tolerance limit of say plus or minus five of the Constitutionally-specified number which presently stands at 30.

8) Good governance demands that the president acts as a ‘statesman’ cum ‘caretaker’ of the people devoid of political hues, ethnicity and religion. Accordingly, he should be prevented by law from engaging in any kind of party politics during the term of his office.

9) Dictatorial powers, if any, of the president should be removed in keeping with the much-hackneyed public outcry.

10) To derive maximum cost-benefit for the country as well as to obtain rational election results from the voters, the presidential election and the national election should be held on one specified day enshrined in the Constitution.

11) Similarly, it is rational that the provincial council elections too be held on one legally-specified day.

12) PSs should be depoliticised allowing the people to elect independent, educated, social-minded, acceptable/respectable persons with high integrity in the locality. At local level, people need grass-root, development facilitators cum ombudsmen and not politicians who are compelled to recover their campaign expenditure by hook or by crook. 

Other related issues

a.Given a decentralised political administration system of governance, it is imperative to rationalise the number of MPs (225) through a proper work study based on well-defined Objectives and Role responsibilities. Examples from countries in the region need to be taken in to account in order to constitutionalise a formula of one MP for ‘X’ no. of registered voters. In our view even the present 225 is an unproductive assemblage.

b.MPs’ salaries and perks should be recommended by an independent committee comprising productivity and work study experts. If this happened before, the taxpayer would have saved the enormous financial burdens arising from the present guarantee of five-year pension and duty free vehicles for MPs. The MPs colluding to increase their own salaries and perks is tantamount to a ‘conflict of interest’.

Need for a new political and media culture

The above measures elicit a paradigm shift in the political culture, approach and attitudes of both politicians and the people. The voters should change their attitudes and refrain from approaching any National level MP to solve their local problems. This change of attitude will automatically happen if the Government ensures ‘Yahapalanaya’ in the most important public institutions viz. the Police Service, the Judiciary and the Government service. In extreme circumstances, a voter may approach an independent local PC or a PS member to overcome administerial delays. Also, it must be noted that under ‘Yahapalanaya’, political interference is taboo!

It is very evident that the mass media and of late, the social media solely possess the power and stamina to bring about this most crucial paradigm shift. Towards this end, the media at the outset have to change their approach to prioritise and report the country’s regional development efforts with a positive outlook followed by a well-balanced reportage of issues leaving the viewers/readers to decide rather than going for popular, sensational, competitive, ‘one-upmanship’ in reporting.

It would be seen that all the aforesaid measures, if implemented in good faith and with political will, will reduce unnecessary waste of time, material and energy by the politicians and the people leading to increases in productivity.

The presence of patriotic, professional politicians who place the country first in their agenda will no doubt take the Parliament from ‘confrontational politics’ to one of ‘consensual and rational politics’ allowing the country to develop in harmony. In this scenario, what is best for the country will always happen and the question of ‘hung Parliament’ will become a misnomer.

Last but not the least; it will also remove a massive volume of unproductive workload of the Elections Department.