The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), an elections monitoring body, has submitted a list of proposals to A. L. M. Athaullah, Minister of Local Government and Provincial Councils, ahead of the Local Government Elections Bill being submitted to Parliament. PAFFREL states that electoral divisions are an important component of the proposed election system, and that there should be a procedure for submitting queries and making objections regarding the electoral divisions, as defined by the Delimitation Commission.
The organisation says political parties (especially minority political parties), civil society organisations and members of the public should have the opportunity to submit objections.
Referring to security deposits, the election monitoring body said the large sum of money demanded restricted the number of candidates who wished to contest elections on their own, and not through political parties.
“Under the proposed system, a candidate for the Colombo Municipal Council must deposit more than Rs. 1,000,000 as security,” PAFFREL points out. “We request you to reduce the deposit amount of the independent groups and consider releasing the deposit of the group if at least a single candidate wins the election. This step will give the opportunity to talented people who do not like party politics to serve the community,”
The organisation also recommends a provision that prohibits the nomination of public servants who have served an area for less than one year.
PAFFREL also referred to the three-month period given for the Declarations of Assets and Liabilities Act No. 1 of 1975, under the proposed Bill. “We have observed that after the elections, those who have contested have little interest on fulfilling this requirement,”
PAFFREL said. “Therefore we request you to introduce provisions making the submission of assets and liabilities along with the nomination papers compulsory and give authority to elections officers to reject nomination papers that do not comply with this requirement.”
PAFFREL also requested that an external officer be put in charge of the counting of votes at a polling station. |
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