Some months have elapsed since the public were made to believe that the Select Committee of Parliament had after almost three years of deliberations completed its report. We congratulated Minister Dinesh Gunawardena for having finally produced the report but, alas, yet another so-called election is upon us and it is once again being conducted under electoral laws that makes it not an election but a circus.

The only redeeming feature which injects a measure of confidence is that the Department of Elections is yet headed by the independent incorruptible Mr. Dayananda Dissanayake, in whom the people of this country have absolute confidence.

Elections in this country became an absolute farce after the government of President JR J changed the existing electoral law, which may have had its shortcomings but was nevertheless better than what he replaced it with. Whilst Proportional Representation is a fairer system, he made the district as the electorate and gave the voter three preference votes which completely corrupted the system.

The system creates dissention between candidates of the same party running in a district competing with each other for preference votes. The present system has also given rise to much corruption consequent to the cost of electioneering in a district. There are other drawbacks too, particularly for the citizen, for (s)he cannot identify his/her MP and hence there is no accountability to the electorate.

It was Lord Acton who stated "The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority that succeeds by force or fraud on carrying elections………...’’ The remedy was PR; it is profoundly democratic as the winner does not take all and ensures that no vote is wasted and that every voter will contribute to bring into Parliament a member of his own opinion or choice.

The ‘first past the post’ system produced many majoritarian governments and the minorities did not feel that they had any say in deciding on their destiny or in the governing of this country. They felt alienated and to this could be traced as the beginning of our ethnic problem. We need to adopt a voting system that would do justice not only to the minorities but to the majority as well. The introduction of PR in 1978 was perhaps intended to ensure justice for the minorities, but the preference vote system that accompanied it has made a mockery of democracy in this country.

I am reliably informed that a mixed system has been proposed by the Select Committee. This would be a huge improvement on the present system and should be adopted. The present system does not make for stable government (because of a low cut off point, no political party which polls an insignificant number of votes should be represented in Parliament) and equally importantly the voter today is unable to identify as to who represents him in Parliament. This is a huge drawback because in a country such as ours the voters depend heavily on his MP for many of his needs and the present system does not enable such a relationship. Democracy in its fullest sense must be restored to the people of this country. Parliament must reflect the will of the people.

Minister Dinesh Gunawardena should take the initiative to ‘market’ the proposals to the citizens of this country. If there are individuals who are once again playing politics, he should make the proposals known to the public and solicit their support and also canvass the support of the clergy of all religions to have the proposals adopted. He should canvass the support of the President, which I am certain would be forthcoming, to hold a Referendum if any political party opposes the proposals.

The proposals should be explained to all government departments and officials, civil society organizations and the print and electronic media should be co-opted and a massive campaign mounted. The minister should also seek the support of the private sector and the advice of marketing specialists; this issue is far too important to be left to itinerant selfish politicians and their parties. We need to restore democracy to this country. What we have today is only the shell and as stated earlier let us hold a Referendum after explaining the proposals to the people for, as the Constitution decrees, sovereignty resides in them.

Let us list what is needed to restore democracy in this country.

1) An independent Election Commission must be established.2) The electoral system must be reformed and the present ‘Preference vote’ system must be done away with. A system of election based on the Belgian and German systems which combines PR with ‘First Past the post’ must be introduced for all levels of elections. There could be political parties opposed to the dumping of the PR system in its present form, because they benefit from it. Whilst their concerns must be addressed the present system MUST be changed in the national interest for it does not result in the will of the people being reflected in Parliament.

3) A De-limitation Commission should be appointed and MPs should not represent or be elected only from Districts or enlarged multi-member constituencies but be elected on the basis of the electorate as was the practice before 1977 to make for the MP more sensitive to the needs of the people. How this should be worked out should be a matter for the Election Commission. I presume that a voter would have two votes - one for his constituency candidate and the other for the list of his preference.

4) The lists should be prepared allowing for gender and youth representation - perhaps 30% and 20% respectively.

5) Voter must be required to produce his NIC to vote; there should be no excuse for not obtaining one; the government must decentralize the system of issuing NICs. The network of Police stations, Divisional Secretariates could easily be utilized for this purpose.

6) Election of the President and the election to Parliament should be held on the same day if the Executive Presidential system is to be retained as it seems would be the case.

7) Parliament should not be dissolved before the expiry of its term as in Germany. When a government is defeated new coalitions could be formed.

8) A Non Party Caretaker government should be appointed in the interim period between nomination day and the election as is the practice in Bangladesh. The reason for this is obvious.

9) The State should fund election costs of political parties with a certain number of MPs, perhaps over ten. Today political parties are funded by the business tycoons and the parties are beholden to them. Interest of the people are only given consideration after the needs of those who have funded the party have been taken care of.

10) A ceiling should be imposed on election costs. In the good old days when democracy was practiced in this country elected members of Parliament were unseated on election petitions for violations of the law relating to election expenditure.

11) Political parties should be required to declare campaign contributions as is the practice in many democracies.

12) Making the laws of a society has a sanctity all its own and only the best as Plato himself has stated, should be entrusted with the task. We must have a minimum qualification, academic or professional or be a taxpayer to become a Legislator or a Member of Parliament and finally all candidates MUST be required by law to make a public declaration of their assets and that of their families.