News
More bonus seats; 50:50 ratio for provincial councils
The Delimitation Commission has proposed to increase from two to five the number of bonus seats for provincial councils to ensure more stability in the PCs. Delimitation Commission Chairman K. Thavalingam on Friday briefed political party representatives on the proposal. The meeting was presided over by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya.
The Commission is recommending that distribution of bonus seats for each province should be based on a mechanism that would ensure representation of minority communities in the PCs. Accordingly, the party which forms the provincial government should get five bonus seats. Two should be from the majority ethnic community in the province, two from the second largest community and one for the third largest.
The distribution of bonus seats should be based on the last population census of 2012 and it is recommended that this criteria be made mandatory by an amendment to the Provincial Council Act. The Commission is also proposing that a total of 437 members be elected to the councils, compared to the 455 members elected under the present system.
Under the proposed mixed electoral system, 222 members would be elected on the First-Past-the-Post (FPP) basis and the rest on a Proportional Representation (PR) basis. The ratio is 50:50. Dr Thavalingam told party representatives that the commission believed that the merger of two single-member electorates into one multi-member electorate would not bring any advantage to any minority community as claimed by political parties during the deliberations.
Speaker Jayasuriya expressed the concerns of civil society groups that that any further delay of PC polls would be a breach of democratic norms. He urged representatives of political parties to come to an common ground on fixing the polls as early as possible. Most party representatives said they believed the PC polls could be conducted by the first week of January next year, if necessary steps were taken accordingly. This would include the passing the Delimitation Commission report with a two-third majority in Parliament.
It was decided at the meeting to appoint a review committee headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to address the shortcomings. The committee also includes Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan, Senior Cabinet Ministers Nimal Sripala de Silva, Rauff Hakeem, Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya and Delimitation Commission Chairman Thavalingam. The review committee is expected to meet on July 26.