Maladies in the PR system

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has lashed out at the system of Proportional Representation introduced in 1981 to elect people’s representatives, pinning down all ills and maladies affecting the electoral process to this system.

Addressing a media conference on the upcoming PC elections, the Commissioner noted that the present tug of war for preferential votes along with virulent intra-party rivalry began with the advent of the PR system.

He has urged authorities to find a balance between the old first-past-the-past system and the present PR system that would provide a better reflection of the people’s will.

Those of a different vintage no doubt would nostalgically recall how simple and straightforward the old election system was. One leisurely walked into the polling booth and marked a cross against the party symbol printed along with the candidate’s name and that was all.

There were no canvassers to badger you with preference numbers of candidates outside polling booths nor were the ballot paper a lengthy complicated encumbrance as it is today which perhaps accounts for the large percentage of spoilt votes.

The PR system was foisted on the electorate by the then J.R. Jayewardene Government ostensibly for the purpose of creating balanced representation.

It was then thought that the first-past-the-post system failed to mirror the voice of all shades in the national polity and that it only represented the majority voice.

There was some justification for this line of thinking particularly where minority representation was concerned. President Ranasinghe Premadasa even went to extent of doing away with the cut off point (the minimum vote percentage required by a party to be in contention) to accommodate insurgent parties which had by then opted out of the electoral process.

However the real motive of introducing the PR system was to ensure the perpetual reign of the UNP. This was based on the arithmetic of elections since independence where it was found that except for 1956 the UNP received a larger percentage of votes on an island-wide scale although losing out on the first-past-the-post system.

So it was not an altruistic motive on the part of the J.R.Jayewardene Government towards minorities and minor political parties that propelled it to introduce the PR system. It was more to ensure its continuance in Government.

The end result as the Elections Commissioner notes is a chaotic electoral process where peoples’ interests and aspirations were subsumed by politicians’ overriding desire for power at any cost which has brought the electoral process into this sorry pass reducing the whole exercise into a farce.

In the Commissioner’s own words the preferential voting system has affected the country negatively. He said “people enter politics under the guise of serving the people and safeguarding democracy. But financial power, thuggery, violence and political strength have unfortunately become the deciding factors of political success”.

More than anything else the PR system which was introduced to mirror the peoples’ will more accurately has paradoxically done just the opposite on most occasions.

It was the perennial lament of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga that although sweeping the board in 1994 she had only a one member majority to show for it. Subsequent elections have seen the entry of a whole mix of diverse political parties and entities to the House.

The bottom line is the system has spawned de-stability where Governments have been compelled to look over their shoulder constantly to ensure the majority is intact. This has led to energies being expended to satisfy legislators to keep them in line to the neglect of more pressing affairs of the State and the people’s needs and aspirations.

It has also given the ordinary legislators undue power whereby they can hold Governments to ransom. This is particularly seen in the conduct of the minority parties, which could affect the Government’s policy direction.

What is therefore needed is a viable system where the Government would not be hamstrung in implementing its policies for the welfare of the people due to the shenanigans in Parliament.

If not for the Executive Presidency which has been able the steer through the troubled waters one could only wonder the fate of country in the absence of such a countervailing force to checkmate the maneuverings in Parliament.

We hope all political parties would be able to reach a consensus on a more effective electoral system in due course.